City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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In the months leading up to basketball season, Piper McGinley’s goal is putting points (or rather goals) up on the board.

McGinley, a junior three-sport varsity player, is an All-SOL striker for the Abington girls soccer team keen on finding the back of the net. When winter arrives, her approach is more defensive, focusing on keeping opponents off the scoreboard and letting her teammates shoulder the majority of the scoring burden. (She has nine varsity letters so far, also playing an attacker and midfielder on the lacrosse team)

In a key Suburban One Liberty Division tilt on Thursday at Abington, Upper Dublin challenged the Ghosts’ defensive stopper to beat them on the offensive end.

It took some time but McGinley exploded for 11 of her 13 points in the fourth-quarter to help turn a tight contest into a runaway 47-33 victory, improving the Ghosts to 9-1 and 5-0 in the division.

“I just started to feel it,” McGinley said. “I was shooting them early too, but they just weren’t falling. I just had to keep my confidence, keep shooting and they fell.”

Abington 18th-year coach Dan Marsh has had some battles with Upper Dublin 11th-year coach Morgan Funsten while squaring off against each other over the last decade and change.

Marsh said Funsten looks for a weakness and tries to exploit it and has had success against the Ghosts in the past.

On Thursday that meant trying to lock down on Abington seniors Cire Worley and Abril Bowser and giving McGinley space, daring her to shoot. For a while, the plan worked.

The shots didn’t fall for McGinley early and the Cardinals hung tight, leading 15-14 after the first quarter and trailing 22-20 at halftime despite 12 first-half points from Worley, who scored all eight of the Ghosts’ points in the second quarter.

“I told her, ‘He’s telling you that you can’t shoot. We know you can shoot. You’re going to have to knock them down. Don’t let him get in your head and win that game,’” Marsh said. 

Worley, who finished with a game-high 16 points, and sophomore Maya Johnson hit some big shots early in the third and McGinley also added her first bucket during a 10-0 run to start the second half, which put Abington ahead by 12. 

The Cardinals didn’t score a point until six minutes into the third, trailing 32-22 entering the fourth. McGinley finally got going in the final period, drilling a pair of threes to start the quarter and expand the advantage to 16. She added a third three and another bucket to her total before the period was over.

“She came out and hit the first couple and wins that head game. … I’m proud of her for persevering through that,” Marsh said.

After holding Upper Dublin to just two points in the third quarter, McGinley and the Ghosts once again locked down in the fourth, holding them to just a pair of points through the first three and a half minutes of the period as they extended their advantage past 20 points, 45-24.

Bowser finished with eight points and Johnson added seven for the Ghosts. Freshman guard Megan Ngo and freshman forward Colleen Besachio both scored nine for the Cardinals, who hung tough against a veteran Abington squad but ultimately didn’t have enough offensive firepower.

McGinley was the Ghosts’ sixth man last season, coming off the bench to provide energy and defense. She’s doing a lot of the same things this season for Abington, just in more playing time after cracking the starting five.

“I’m happy with that role,” McGinley said. “I like to bring the energy. I like to have the challenge of guarding one of the best players every game.”

She also knows there are going to be times like Thursday when she needs to act like a striker and make her presence felt on the offensive end.

“I’m more of a defensive player for this team, boxing out guarding bigger players and knocking down shots and stuff when I can,” McGinley said.

“That’s going to be really important because they’re going to be guarding Cire hard and Abril, knowing she’s a shooter, so I gotta shoot my shot and knock it down.”

This past fall, McGinley and her twin sister Harper — who were greeted with cupcakes smashed on their faces during the locker room celebration in honor of their birthdays on Friday — along with senior Maura Day, senior Carley Slavin and junior Kara Slavin finished atop the SOL Liberty Division during soccer season.

Now, the goal is to help the Ghosts’ basketball squad dethrone three-time reigning champion Plymouth Whitemarsh and get back on top of the division for the first time since sharing the SOL American crown with Upper Dublin in 2018-19. 

With victories over the Colonials and now the Cardinals, they are firmly in the driver’s seat.

“We knew we had to win these games so we can try to win the league,” McGinley said. 

The Ghosts will focus on the division first, but they have bigger ambitions as well.

Abington went to the District 1-6A quarters and also earned a state playoff trip and state playoff win for the first time since 2019 last season. The soccer group advanced to the district quarters this past fall, but finished one win short of another state playoff trip, so that is also on the minds of McGinley and her teammates.

They’ve shown themselves very capable thus far.

Abington currently holds the top spot in the District 1-6A power rankings and have impressive resumes over West Chester Rustin, Souderton, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Albertus Magnus (N.Y.) and Penn Charter on their resume with the lone loss coming to one of the Philadelphia Catholic League favorites Archbishop Carroll.

“I thought our December could be taught because our December was loaded with some really, really good teams,” Marsh said. “To finish December off against a solid Upper Dublin team with not a pretty win, but a good win, I’m very happy where we are right now. I’m happy with how we’re playing. But there’s a lot of season left, a lot of work to do. We gotta get back to work and get ready for Upper Moreland on Tuesday.”

By Quarter
Upper Dublin:  15   |  5  |  2  |  11  ||  33
Abington:    14  |  8  |   10   |  15  ||  47

Scoring
Upper Dublin: Megan Ngo 9, Colleen Besachio 9, Nora Brady 6, Brighid Brady 5, Kaylee Fitzkee 2, Lilli Kleiman 2

Abington: Cire Worley 16, Piper McGinley 13, Maya Johnson 8, Abril Bowser 7, Mikayla Durham 3.