Girls Hoops: Haverford Clips Cardinals 33-28

Players on the Upper Dublin girls’ basketball team weren't quite sure what hit them Wednesday night. At halftime, it appeared to be business as usual; the Lady Cardinals had just built themselves a 10-point lead by playing their trademark stingy defense and scoring off turnovers, and would only need 16 more minutes of smart basketball to defeat visiting Fords and punch a ticket to states. The sixth-seeded Cardinals would march on, and 11th seeded Haverford could fight it out in the consolations of the District 1 AAAA basketball tournament.

But then everything, and nothing, happened. The everything was a fiery Haverford team clawing back, led by senior center Sharee Halstead's play in the paint, as a raucous visiting student section invaded the Cardinal's Nest.

The nothing was a scoreless third quarter for Upper Dublin, empty possessions, and a 2 for 11 effort from the line. The nothing was the empty feeling among the Lady Cardinals as they lined up and waited for handshakes, watching a celebratory mass of Fords and fans storm their court below a scoreboard that read 33-28, Haverford.

"[Which one person] can you look to blame?" said Upper Dublin head coach Vincent Catanzaro after the game. "I thought we were evenly matched in a sense…  the kids didn't buckle up and they didn't make the rebound when they needed it, and they had their chances at the foul line and didn't make the foul shots."

Haverford head coach John Berardoni, on the other hand, saw his team rise to the occasion.

"This team has more heart than any team I've ever coached, they never quit," said Berardoni. "They don't care what the score is, what the situation is, they're going to fight until the clock runs out."

The teams were evenly matched early, in what would be a cold-shooting night for both squads. The Fords scored first on a Jaclyn Gantz layup, and still held a 2-1 lead after the Cardinals missed three of four foul shots on consecutive possessions. Upper Dublin's Lauren Rothfeld would hit a three to take the lead, but a Halstead answer in the paint evened the game, 4-4, at the 3:30 mark.

Cardinal guard Cutrena Goff would then make a tough shot off a drive and find forward Jennifer Myers for an inside bucket on the next possession, giving the home team an 8-5 lead after the first quarter.

Upper Dublin has had a knack for pulling away in the second, and Wednesday night proved to be no different as the Cardinals outscored Haverford 14-7 in the frame. After Gantz hit two free throws on the first possession, the Fords would not hit another field goal until the 2:30 mark, when a Halstead layup made it 20-10.

Upper Dublin forward Brianna Spector scored 5 points in the second and star guard Taylor Bryant found her way onto the board with a pair of baskets, including the final, press-breaking jumper that made the score 22-12 going into the locker room.

Play became scrappy in the third. After Halstead scored again inside on the first possession to cut the lead to 22-14, the Fords would not score again until a Katrina Gieger jumper at the 2:34 mark, nearly six minutes later. What happened in between was a zone defense from the Fords, one that appeared to frazzle Upper Dublin and force them to make four turnovers.

"We put the zone in on defense. That kind of threw them out of their rhythm a little bit," said Berardoni. "We just hunkered down and really dug in on defense and gave ourselves a chance to come back."

The final minutes of the quarter ended in a flurry, one that saw both benches raising their arms at perceived missed calls and arm slaps, as Haverford would score 1 more to cut the lead to 22-17 heading into the final frame.

"I thought they got away with a lot," said Catanzaro after the game. "There weren't a lot of fouls called. There was a lot of grabbing there was a lot of everything going in there, [but] we weren't tough enough and that was the bottom line."

The Lady Cardinals received instant breathing room in the fourth, as guard Kayla McAneney hit a tough shot on Upper Dublin's first possession, drawing a foul but missing a free throw to push the lead to seven.

However, the Fords would resume chipping away at the lead. After senior Maura O'Connell hit a bucket to cut the lead to five, she was sent to the free throw line for a one and one. O'Connell hit the first and missed the second, but Halstead collected the rebound and scored to make it a two point game, 24-22 with 4:31 to play.

Goff would try to propel the Cardinal offense a possession later by driving the lane. Hitting a wall of Fords in the paint, Goff found Rothfeld on the arch to hit a gigantic three, giving Upper Dublin a 27-22 lead with 3:18 remaining.

However, O'Connell, who led Haverford with 5 points in the fourth, would hit a layup 30 seconds later to cut the lead to three. Then, in what might have been the most crucial play of the game, Haverford freshman Julia Gantz picked a pass at the top of the key and took the ball the whole way, cutting the lead to just 1 with 2:19 left in the game.

"It was our senior leadership and a tremendous freshman [Gantz] that really did a heck of a job to keep our heads on, to keep fighting," said Berardoni.

Another Upper Dublin turnover would lead to a Halstead bucket inside to give Haverford their first lead since the opening possession, 28-27. Upper Dublin's Spector would make 1 of 2 free throws after being fouled on the next possession to tie the game with 48 seconds remaining, but the Cardinals would not score again.

Katrina Geiger hit one of two free throws for the Fords to retake the lead, and a long Spector shot from near the 3-point line would rim out and fall to Haverford. With Upper Dublin forced to foul, the Fords sank four free throws, including two following a Gieger steal with 6 seconds remaining, to seal the victory.

Haverford now advances to play third seeded Spring-Ford in the district quarterfinals, Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Upper Dublin drops into consolation play and will host Central Bucks South on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The best the Cardinals can hope for is to win three games and take ninth place and the district's final berth in the state tournament.

"We have to work harder, get back up on their horse and try to win three," said Catanzaro.

Scoring

Haverford

Sharee Halstead: 12
Jaclyn Gantz: 9
Maura O'Connell: 6
Julia Gantz: 3
Katrina Gieger: 3

Upper Dublin

Brianna Spector: 7
Lauren Rothfeld: 6
Jennifer Myers: 5
Taylor Bryant: 4
Cutrena Goff: 4
Kayla McAneney: 2