In a way that made them feel lost and confused, the Upper Dublin Cardinals struggled to cope with Cardinal O’Hara’s aggressive defense.
The O’Hara Lions, who came in second in District 12, repeatedly stole the ball from Upper Dublin, leading to 16 turnovers in the first half, and secured a 48-19 win in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A playoffs on Friday night.
Before the game, the Lions were focused on shutting down UD senior Amy Ngo, who took over as the point guard after her sister Megan suffered an ACL injury last month.
O’Hara senior Carly Coleman, who scored the most points in the game with 20, explained, “We knew Amy was a great player, so we decided to get the ball out of her hands and then double-team and trap the others. Meg (Rullo) started with a couple of steals, and from then on, we took off. We were all energized.”
Megan Rullo scored eight points and Molly Rullo added seven for the Lions (22-4) as they advanced to face Pennsbury in the next round, after Pennsbury defeated Hazleton 63-48.
Upper Dublin (22-5), the eighth team from District 1, was behind 11-4 after the first quarter and 23-8 at halftime.
A crucial sequence unfolded towards the end of the second quarter. Joanie Quinn made a 3-pointer, increasing O’Hara’s lead to 14-8. Molly Rullo followed with a 3-pointer of her own, making it 17-8, and then Quinn scored after a quick steal, extending the lead to 11 points.
Coleman started the second half with a 3-pointer, putting the Lions ahead 26-8.
“It’s obviously a tough way to end the season, a non-competitive game like that, but the girls continued to play hard,” UD coach Morgan Funsten said. “It doesn’t diminish the success they’ve had this year. We know O’Hara is really good, and we just gave them too many easy points off of turnovers.
“You have to prove to (O’Hara) early on that you’re not intimidated and that you can handle the pressure,” he said. “I thought our girls did come out confident. … I thought our halfcourt defense was good and our rebounding was good, but we had too many live-ball turnovers where they got easy points.”
Although Upper Dublin outrebounded O’Hara 26-19, they turned over the ball 28 times.
“We’re a pressure team,” Coleman said. “We have a 52 defense, full-court, we’re a bunch of athletes who like to hustle. It feels awesome to be moving on after that win. It was just fun out there with my teammates. It was a great week of practice and it transferred into the game.”
UD only made 8 of 26 field goal attempts. Amy Ngo scored six points and Tamia Clark added five.
Before Megan Ngo's injury in the Suburban One League tournament, the Cardinals had lost just one game in the regular season. Their journey became more difficult after the injury, yet they still made it to the states.
"The main point after tonight was just expressing gratitude to the seniors," Funsten said. "This group of seniors has worked the hardest, and I've been fortunate to have such great people come through the program with outstanding character."
Amy Ngo, Brighid Brady and Nora Brady will finish school this spring.
"It's going to be very challenging to find replacements next year," Funsten said. "Luckily, they've left a positive impact, and we hope the younger girls will follow in their footsteps in terms of their hard work over the years."
— — —
Cardinal O’Hara 48, Upper Dublin 19
Upper Dublin 4 4 5 6 — 19
O’Hara 11 12 21 4 — 48
UD: Amy Ngo 3 0 0-2 6, Tamia Clark 2 0 1-2 5, Bridget DiMartile 1 0 1-2 3, Nora Brady 0 1 0-0 3, Brighid Brady 1 0 0-0 2. Totals — 7 1 2-6 19.
O’Hara: Carly Coleman 7 2 0-0 20, Megan Rullo 2 1 1-2 8, Molly Rullo 2 1 0-0 7, Joanie Quinn 1 1 0-0 5, Brigid MacGillivray 1 1 0-0 5, Greta Miller 0 1 0-0 3. Totals — 13 7 1-2 48.
— — —
Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.
