Upper Dublin's Ryan Mulroy, 13, defends as Sun Valley's Aaron Freeman attempts a pass during the District 1 Class 5A semifinal game Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at Upper Dublin High School. (Media News Group)
UPPER DUBLIN — Just like Marty McFly, the Upper Dublin Cardinals were just about to return to 1985.
The last time Upper Dublin's men's basketball program reached the district championship game, Michael Jordan was an NBA rookie. Wham!'s “Careless Whisper” was the number one pop single. And, yeah, “Back to the Future” hadn't even been released in theaters yet (until that summer).
But no flux capacitors were needed for this year's Cardinals to become the first group to advance to the district championship game since the 1984-85 team that won the district title that season.
Plutonium wasn't even needed, unless you count a barrage of 3-pointers, as second-seeded Upper Dublin defeated sixth-seeded Sun Valley 55-25 in the District 1 Class 5A semifinals Saturday at The Nest.
Other UD teams have reached states that these Cardinals have already won, but this accomplishment is worthy on its own.
“It's really cool,” Upper Dublin coach Morgan Funsten said. “It's a credit to the kids who have worked so hard to get here. The chance to win the district for the first time in 39 years is special. We're looking forward to it.”
The game was tied at 10:00 after the first quarter, with UD holding a 22-18 lead at halftime. No tries from downtown beyond Sun Valley's zone fell. However, Upper Dublin opened the second half with six consecutive three-point scores.
Let the bomb go off!
The Cardinals (24-3), who haven't lost since Jan. 3, outscored the Vanguards 20-2 in the third period en route to their 15th straight win. They will play top-seeded Unionville for the district title Thursday at West Chester University.
Sun Valley is still alive for the state.
“This is amazing. It feels great,” said Upper Dublin junior Ryan Mulroy, who scored a game-high 16 points. “Last year I went to Temple for the district championship game and I was so jealous of seeing so many teams there. This year we get to do it in Westchester. Everyone's We're very proud of that. We're excited.”
The fast-paced Cardinals went nine-man deep and went just 4-of-14 from beyond the arc in the first half, but exploded in the third quarter.
“They ran a really good 1-3-1 zone, so I knew I had to break it up with my shooting and not my dribbling,” he said, scoring 12 points on four threes. said Brady Fogle, a UD senior. “We took a lot of shots in the first half, but the opponent didn't fall down, but we continued to believe in ourselves and in the end, the opponent started attacking us.”
Idris Lynes scored nine points and Kobe Bazemore added seven points for Upper Dublin.
“We know that when teams play zone, they're probably going to get about 25 percent more threes than they normally would, so we've been working on that every day in practice with the 1-3-1.” said Funsten. “We made a few adjustments in the second half. We put our bigger guys up top so we could get past (their zone). And we made shots.
“Also, the game was so fast in the first half that sometimes it felt like we were rushing a little bit when we took shots,” he said. “Everyone settled down a little bit in the second half. Kudos to the guys for beating them.”
For Sun Valley, Noah Griffin scored nine points on 9-of-38 shooting from the field. Kaiden Robinson finished with eight points.
Since June, including exhibition games, the Cardinals are 46-6 with a healthy starting five. Right now, the team is going as well as ever.
“Our players have been here all spring and summer, playing together and shooting in the open gym, and I think that’s helped us a lot,” Mulroy said. “That's a big boost.”
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Upper Dublin 55, Sun Valley 25
Sun Valley 10 8 2 5 — 25Upper Dublin 10 12 26 7 — 55
SV: Noah Griffin 2 1 2-2 9, Kaiden Robinson 2 1 1-4 8, Blaise Eldridge 2 0 0-0 4, Justin Hickman 1 0 0-0 2, Aaron Freeman 0 0 2-2 2, Dino Diemidio 0 0 0 -2 0. Total — 7 2 5-10 25.
UD: Ryan Mulroy 5 2 0-0 16, Brady Fogle 0 4 0-0 12, Idris Lynes 0 3 0-0 9, Kobe Bazemore 1 1 202 7, Noah Cohen 2 0 0-0 4, Brandon Altman 2 0 0-0 4, 2 0 0-0 4, James Castronuovo 0 1 0-0 3. Totals — 10 11 2-2 55.
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Follow Christiaan DeFranco of X at @the_defranc.
