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Early start doesn't bother Besachio, Upper Dublin girls against West Catholic

01/08/2023, 7:30pm EST
By Sean Barnard

Sean Barnard (@Sean_Barnard1)

An early-morning wakeup was an easy hurdle to clear for Upper Dublin on Sunday morning. 

A 9 AM matchup with West Catholic, the opening game of the Blue Star High School Invitational, marked their earliest start time of the season. The Cardinals had a 7:30 bus ride over to Thomas Jefferson, but the day began even earlier than that, with a 20-minute walkthrough just after 7 AM.


Colleen Besachio (above) was named game MVP after scoring 19 points against West Catholic. (Photo: Sean Barnard/CoBL)

But Morgan Funston’s group certainly didn’t seem to be bothered by the atypical tip time.

Upper Dublin jumped out to a nine-point lead after the first quarter and did not allow West Catholic to get back into the game. They cruised to a wire-to-wire 47-28 victory to move to 7-3 on the season. 

“I thought the team that won the first quarter was gonna have a good chance of winning,” Funsten said. “I think that's what you saw. The girls came out focused and really played a pretty first quarter and stayed consistent throughout.”

“Early-morning games, like it can go either way, no matter how good the teams are,” freshman Colleen Besachio said. “So we just mentally prepared ourselves and woke ourselves up early.”

The 5-foot-11 freshman was a vital part in the victory over West Catholic. She led the team in scoring with 19 points, along with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Her impressive performance earned her the game MVP. 

“Colleen plays with a lot of confidence,” Funsten said. “She does not get flustered,” 

While the Cardinals may have made it look easy on the scoreboard, this was a measuring stick-victory for the program. Following the loss, West Catholic now holds a record of 7-2 on the season and have outscored opponents by 231 total points on the year with all seven of their wins coming by 14 points or more. They were led in scoring in the matchup by Amina Reid who finished with 13 of the team’s 28 points. 

Upper Dublin made it a priority to control the pace of the matchup and credited this as a major reason for their success. 

“If they control the pace, they are extremely difficult to play against,” Funsten said. “They're much more comfortable up in your face, running up and down the court. The girls did a great job of understanding when to speed up, when to slow down, and yeah I thought the tempo was good.”

At the heart of the tempo control was another freshman, Megan Ngo. The 5-2 point guard was crucial to running the team’s offense, calling plays, and making her presence felt. She tallied 13 points, five assists, and two steals in the victory. Ngo also created a number of other looks for her teammates and took two charges during the matchup. 

“Meg’s a coach's dream,” Funsten said. “Someone with as high of a basketball IQ and an intensity and love for the sport, she checks every box.”

While there are some unique challenges of having their top two contributors as freshmen, it helps that the two are already quite familiar with each other’s games. The duo have shared the court since they were young and it is evident in their on-court chemistry. 

“It's always been fun,” Besachio said about playing with Ngo. “We’ve been playing together for a long time and it's always fun to play with someone that you've known for almost your whole life. So it's just that chemistry keeps going.”

The two first-year starters’ impact has been notable in the Cardinals jumping out to their 7-3 start. Upper Dublin has been without junior Amy Ngo, Megan’s sister, due to a knee injury that has kept her out all season. They also graduated two other contributing seniors from last season, Geena Sarnoski and Colleen Klammer

Both Besachio and Ngo have been vital in filling the shoes these standouts have left and expectations have not shrunk at all. 

“Maybe it's not fair to the freshmen on our team, but we don't view them as freshmen,” Funsten said. “Their responsibilities, the expectations on them are the same as the seniors and maybe it's not fair but it's kind of the way we've done it. Even though they're freshmen and they don't have a lot of experience playing at the varsity level, they have a lot of experience as basketball players. For that reason, we're going to hold them to a very high standard and so far they have reached it if not exceeded it.”

Besachio and the rest of the roster will be put to the test as they face off with 9-1 Upper Moreland on January 9. They also have conference matchups against Cheltenham (5-6) on Jan. 13, New Hope-Solebury (6-4) on Jan. 17, and Lower Moreland (4-6) on Jan 20. 

The team has already built up strong chemistry on and off the court and will look to lean on this moving forward. With no more early mornings in the near future, it will be business as usual for the Cardinals for the rest of the season. 

“Everyone just needs to support each other for this next stretch, and we'll be good,” Besachio said.

By Quarter
Upper Dublin:  13  |  14  |  10  |  10  ||  47
West Catholic:  4   |  10  |   7   |   7   ||  28

Shooting
Upper Dublin: 15-35 FGA (4-17 3PA), 13-17 FTA
West Catholic: 10-28 FGA (3-11 3PA), 5-14 FTA

Scoring
Upper Dublin: Besachio 19, Ngo 13, N. Brady 10, B. Brady 3, Kleiman 2

West Catholic: Reid 13, Moore 5, Farmer 5, Butler 4, Henry 1


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