Upper Dublin holds off Haverford

Bliss Brenner’s free throws fell through clean, the Upper Dublin defense stood firm one more time, and the Cardinals extracted a 23-18 victory out of an evening that was not their best.

“It was a rough game,” said Upper Dublin’s Amy Ngo, who scored timely baskets and contributed to the defense. “We had to stay calm and composed.

“We’re trying to put this game behind us — we missed a lot of easy shots. I think in the beginning of the game, we were excited and nervous because we hadn’t played in a week. We won, and that’s really important.”

The fourth-seeded Cardinals (19-3) advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday, and a home game against either Downingtown East or West Chester Rustin.

No. 13 Haverford finished a fine season at 7-3.

“We knew Caroline Dotsey was really good down low and Chiara MacGillivray was a good shooter,” Ngo said.

Dotsey battled inside for nine points, including a bucket that brought upset-minded Haver

ford within 20-14 with just 1 minute, 33 seconds to go.

MacGillivray made one of two foul shots to bring the Fords closer, and then she hit a three moments later to cut it to 20-18 with 23 seconds remaining.

With 20 ticks left, Brenner went to the line.

Upper Dublin had missed three front ends of oneand-one opportunities, but Brenner came through in the clutch, sinking both to make it 22-18.

Upper Dublin made one more stand and a foul shot by Jess Polin, who had a game-high seven steals, capped the scoring.

“At this point in the year, you don’t get any extra credit for style points,” said Cardinals coach Morgan Funsten, who guided UD to the state title in 2018. “There were certainly no style points tonight.

“We made just enough plays. Credit to Haverford. They really battled. They’re very physical and I thought their physicality got to us a little bit. For us, the play of the game was probably Bliss Brenner — when we were struggling to make foul shots — making two foul shots to extend the lead to four.”

ROUGH GOING >> Both teams struggled from the floor early.

Upper Dublin broke the scoreless tie with 4:31 left in the first quarter, a pair of free throws by Sarah Eskew falling through.

Haverford tied it with a basket underneath by Dotsey, but then the Cardinals closed out the quarter strong.

Ngo scored for Upper Dublin and Eskew added a three, making it 7-2 after one.

Upper Dublin’s defense continued to control things, with a steal by Polin capping things off to end the first half.

Ngo and Geena Sarnoski each had buckets in the second quarter to make it an 11-5 Cardinal lead at the break.

A basket by Addison Brodnik brought the Fords within 11-7 in the third, but Upper Dublin’s defense tightened its grip.

After Sarnoski scored on a runner for the Cards, Ngo finished off a fast break spurred by the defense and the lead was at 15-7.

Dotsey continued to battle inside for the Fords, scoring underneath to slice the margin to 15-9. Polin made one of her steals in the final seconds of the third to ensure Upper Dublin took a six-point advantage into the fourth.

Ngo scored off an inbounds pass and completed the three-point play to push Upper Dublin’s advantage to 20-12 before Haverford made one more run.

“We’re so proud of their effort,” Fords coach Lauren Pellicane said. “I think anyone’s game plan going in is to limit their two seniors (Polin and Eskew) and we did that. We were in the game at the end and that was certainly our goal coming in.

“We have a lot of young talent coming back next year. A couple seniors (Addison Brodnick and MacGillivray) are graduating but we started a couple of sophomores and have a freshman off the bench. It’s a group that just battles. We respect our opponent but we’re not gonna back down, and I think we proved that tonight.”