Neshaminy starts fast, handles Upper Dublin in PIAA AAAA 2nd round
LIMERICK >> The Neshaminy girls basketball team jumped out to an early lead over Upper Dublin in the second round of the PIAA Class AAAA state playoffs Tuesday night at Spring-Ford High School and never let up en route to a 53-35 victory.
The (1-7) Redskins dominated the first half. They led by 13, 25-12, at the break after shooting 9-for-17 from the field and 4-for-8 from three-point land.
“We felt like we lost the game in the first half,” Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said. “Really when we didn’t defend an out-of-bounds play properly, we fouled (Allison) Harvey on a three … She made all three foul shots and that kind of snowballed a little bit. We made a couple other poor decisions defensively that we typically never make.
“They are a tough team to play catch up on. We talked at halftime and said whatever happens in the second half, we better go down with a fight.”
The (1-4) Cardinals fight came late in the third quarter. They scored six straight to end the period and Maggie Weglos hit a three-pointer early in the fourth to cut the deficit to eight, 36-28.
“We’re not great at playing catch-up,” Funsten said. “We were able to pull it out in the first round (against Carroll) being down 10 in the fourth quarter and make some magic there.”
From that point, Neshaminy finished the game on a 17-5 run.
The Redskins had a lot of success offensively; something Upper Dublin opponents haven’t had much of over the last two months. Neshaminy shot 50 percent from the field (16-for-32) and from three (5-for-10).
“We were patient with the ball and made good decisions, which is something (Upper Dublin) does really well also,” Neshaminy coach Joe Lally said. “I thought if we could be patient with the ball and make good decisions – use our athleticism to attack the basket a little bit – that we could gain some advantage there.”
It was a balanced attack for Neshaminy’s offense. Morgan Goldenbaum, Brooke Mullin and Harvey each scored in double figures with 13, 12 and 11 points, respectively, and Devon Storms scored nine.
“It’s been somebody different for us many different nights,” Lally said. “That’s the style that we play. We don’t run a lot of sets for specific players. We’re all about knowing all the positions on the floor, so it can be anybody at any time.”
It wasn’t the Cardinals’ stiff defense that Neshaminy was concerned with, however, it was their offense.
The Redskins ‘D’ held Upper Dublin to 10-for-49 shooting. Josie Barrett led the Cardinals with 12 points, Allison Chernow added nine and Weglos eight.
“The key for us was stopping them on defense,” Lally said. “Everything for us was trying to figure out a way to contain Allison. We knew Josie was a good shooter – we didn’t do a great job on her obviously, but we were really content with trying to make Allison work for everything she got
“Allison is a great player, have a lot of respect for her, but I think Morgan Goldenbaum doesn’t get enough credit. She did a great job on her. She did a fantastic job.”
The loss brings Upper Dublin’s season to an end.
“I don’t know if you would have found anybody in the beginning of the season that would have picked Upper Dublin to be in the top 16 in the state … Just, overall, the season Allison Chernow had as a senior – as a four-year varisty player – I thought she matured so much – our go-to leader,” said Funsten.
“I think we’re going to look back on this season and be really satisfied with the accomplishments we had. I think they proved these last two games – even though we lost – we proved we are champions, which we won the (Suburban One) League (American Conference).”
