City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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WHITEMARSH – Megan Ngo might look like a freshman but she most certainly does not play like one.

The Upper Dublin point guard is all of 5-foot-2 - “with shoes on” - but plays like someone two times that size and with enough guts that it’s a wonder how she keeps them all contained in her miniscule frame. What Ngo doesn’t have is fear, as unflappable in the face of a missed shot, turnover or bad play as she is after a rebound, a defensive stop or a make.

Ngo played anything but like a freshman Wednesday, putting together a sterling 22-point effort as No. 19 Upper Dublin stunned No. 3 Plymouth Whitemarsh 40-33 in the second round of the District I 6A girls’ playoffs, earning a spot in states and advancing to the district quarters.

“I know what I have to contribute to this team,” Ngo, who scored nine points in the deciding fourth quarter, said. “Sometimes, I have to block it out and forget about it. It also helps having a bunch of upperclassmen who keep me composed.”

Over the last three seasons, Plymouth Whitemarsh had turned its home court at Gym West into a nigh-impregnable fortress, having won 45 straight games at home since their last loss on Feb. 1, 2020. The opponent that Saturday afternoon?

Upper Dublin.

Nobody on UD’s current roster played that day and for a little more than six minutes to start the game, it didn’t look like they would be any threat to end that streak either. PW came firing, scoring the first 11 points of the game as the Cardinals mis-fired on their first seven shots, prompting coach Morgan Funsten to call a timeout with 1:41 to play in the first quarter.

“He told us we can’t be satisfied just getting here,” Ngo said. “Most teams could just quit right now, but we’re not going to do that and we’re going to stay together. We’re going to keep playing and get back in it.”

Amy Ngo, Megan’s older sister, hit a three to finally break the drought, Megan scored on a difficult take to the rim and in perhaps the biggest shot of the game, Megan found junior Nora Brady who hit nothing but net on a buzzer-beating three to end the frame. A listless start had started to return to even keel and although UD didn’t lead in the first half, Megan Ngo’s seven second-quarter points sent them to break tied 15-15.

With Amy out until late January finishing her comeback from a major knee injury, Megan had to put a lot on her shoulders early on for a Cardinals team that didn’t bring a lot back from a season ago. Basketball is life for the Ngos so even if though Funsten wasn’t quite expecting all this from Megan, it’s not like it’s totally unexpected either.

“I’m not surprised,” Funsten said. “The amount of love they have for the game, nothing they would do would surprise me.”

Upper Dublin took its first lead on an Amy Ngo free throw 17 seconds into the third quarter and led 23-20 with 1:43 left in the period before PW answered. Freshman AJ Avery, who had hit the three to start the 11-0 run in the first quarter, tied the game 23-23, Abby Sharpe scored for a 25-23 lead and after Megan Ngo tied it at the line, Erin Daley beat the buzzer on a three for a 28-25 lead.

Sharpe hit two free throws with 7:07 left in the game for a 30-25 lead. The Colonials wouldn’t score again until Daley’s three with 8.6 left and the Cardinals leading by 10 thanks to their confident free throw shooting.

“We got up 30-25 and we couldn’t score,” PW coach Dan Dougherty said. “We went too many offensive possessions against them that just stalled out. We talked to the girls about when you’re playing against their level of defense, it’s a battle of execution and sometimes it's a grind of who’s going to get tired of trying to execute first.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh, the defending District I 6A champion, will now have to play its way into states against another familiar foe in No. 6 Abington, the Ghosts falling to No. 11 Pennsbury in their playback. Only one of the two teams will go to states, meaning one very good squad will see its season end much sooner than expected.

Playing in a game like Wednesday’s is draining. Both teams run patient offense and neither gives ground on defense, so it feels like trench warfare trying to even score. Factor in a packed house with dueling student sections chanting nonstop every time certain players touched the ball and it should have been exhausting.

Not for Megan Ngo - her 22 points matching her sister's jersey number - who came sprinting over from the far end and opposite side of the court when Funsten called for her to come do a postgame interview.

“Her bicep muscles get your attention because of how short she is, she raises up and gets rebounds over 5-(foot)-10 people, she just has unlimited energy,” Funsten said. “She’s a great teammate, a great kid. I’m sure the number one thing she cares about is that we won, she doesn’t care how it happens.”

When the teams met near the end of the regular season earlier this month, Megan went scoreless as PW won on a late layup by Sharpe. With six minutes left, there was the freshman pulling up for a three with a hand in her face, knotting the score 30-30.

“I had made a couple in the first half, I was feeling good so I decided I would shoot it,” Ngo said. “I kind of thought it was going in.”

Colleen Besachio, the other freshman in UD’s lineup who has started all season alongside Ngo, was clutch late in the game as well. She hit the long two, banked in off the glass, a possession before Ngo tied it, then gave the Cardinals the last lead they would need with a hoop inside with 3:41 to play.

With PW unable to get the go-ahead three to fall in response, the Colonials eventually had to foul and put Upper Dublin in the bonus with 56.9 to play. Not that they really had any choice, but the Colonials couldn’t have picked a worse option from their perspective to put at the stripe than Ngo, who made four straight and six of eight - her sister contributing the other two - as UD didn’t miss from the line to build a 10-point lead with 18 seconds left.

Toughness is inherent in the Ngos. Megan and Amy’s mom, Jen Zenszer Ngo, was a two-time PCL North Division MVP at Bishop McDevitt and a member of the Big Five Hall of Fame after her star career at La Salle. If that wasn’t enough, she’s an FBI agent and the girls’ dad Sean is a retired FBI agent as well, so a turnover, a missed shot or a bad play?

That’s probably not rattling either of the sisters on a basketball court.

“Even when things aren’t going well, you have to move on,” Megan said. “The biggest difference in high school from middle school is the game moves so fast that you have to forget about anything that happened in the past.”

Upper Dublin will travel to No. 11 Pennsbury on Saturday, where it will be 367 days since Amy Ngo went down in the fourth quarter of a district playoff game in the Falcons’ gym and tore about every ligament in her right knee. Funsten said there’s probably nobody more looking forward to that game than Amy Ngo, but having been in the stands last year and watching every step of her sister’s 11-month rehab, it’s a sure bet Megan Ngo will be right there to have Amy’s back.

“It’s a lot, but it’s good having my sister who has the same work ethic as me always there,” Megan said. “A lot of it’s from my older sister, she keeps me composed on the games, focus on what we want to do and not let anything affect us.”

By Quarter

UPPER DUBLIN 8 | 7 | 10 | 15 || 40

PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 11 | 4 | 13 | 5 || 33

Scoring

UD: Megan Ngo 22, Amy Ngo 9, Colleen Besachio 6, Nora Brady 3

PW: Abby Sharpe 11, Erin Daley 11, AJ Avery 6, Kenna Winland 3, Azzy Crumpton 2