City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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WILLOW GROVE – It wasn’t the halftime message Holly Gohl was expecting, but one she admitted she needed.

The Upper Moreland junior forward walked off the court thinking she’d had a pretty good half, scoring most of her team's points and grabbing some rebounds even if the Golden Bears were down. So when UM coach Matt Carroll came into the team room and started calling her out, Gohl was a little taken aback but quickly agreed.

Gohl took the message to heart, shoring up her defense as the Bears’ supporting cast rallied around her, downing Mount Saint Joseph Academy 30-26 in Tuesday’s District I 5A fifth-place game.

“It fired me up. He was saying I needed to help better and I definitely did because they kept driving right past me,” Gohl said. “It made me realize I needed to step up and play some better defense. They were clearly a skilled driving team, they didn’t have many outside, they really only scored when they drove so that got me motivated to start helping more.”

Gohl’s done a lot for Upper Moreland all season, but even more the last month-plus as she’s carried a bulk of the scoring with senior guard EmmyFaith Wood first out with an injury then back but still trying to get back to herself. That’s no excuse not to be there on defense, especially for a Golden Bears team that’s built on that end of the court.

So, even if Gohl had nine of UM’s 12 points at half, it was the 16-12 deficit and the Magic’s mix of drives to the rim and offensive rebounds that Carroll was focused on. 

“At halftime, I ripped into Holly because defensively, she was not doing what she was supposed to be doing,” Carroll said. “She was supposed to be staying in the lane and if her girl got the ball, then kind of go out on her and they were getting drives into the lane and she was nowhere around.

“She responded well.”

Tuesday’s first quarter was pretty entertaining, with Gohl and Mount Saint Joseph Academy senior Georgia Pickett basically going back-and-forth for eight minutes. Gohl had seven points, but it was Pickett with eight that included an offensive rebound put-back with two seconds left that tied the game 10-10.

The second quarter did not keep up the tempo, both teams falling into a rut that included turnovers and misses for about three minutes until Gohl scored for a 12-10 UM lead. After that, the Magic’s combination of defense and drives took over on a 6-0 run that closed the half.

Kiersten Pumilia tied the game at the line, Lauren Hoffman gave the Magic the lead on a strong take to the bucket and a steal from Pumilia led to an outlet that Hoffman converted into a layup for the 16-12 halftime lead. With the rest of her team scoring just three points and a few of the team’s turnovers coming off attempts to get her the ball inside, Gohl wasn’t quite sure why her coach’s ire was being turned her way.

“At first, I was kind of confused then I thought, ‘I know what he means,’” Gohl said. “There was one play where I was literally standing right there and she drove past me. He asked ‘where were you?’ and I had to say ‘yeah, I wasn’t there,’ so I could have used that.”

Gohl connected on her final field goal of the game for the first score of the third quarter, hitting a three from the left wing. She’d only score one more point on her way to a team-high 13, but the forward was not done having an impact on the game.

She added 12 rebounds, 10 of them after halftime having been emboldened by Carroll’s challenge to be more of a  presence on the defensive end. In general, the Bears had the claws out on defense in the second half - giving up just 10 total points and only three in the fourth quarter - a number that even surprised Gohl.

“We knew who were their go-to players, who we could help off of but in the first half, it seemed like every single time they got an offensive rebound, they scored,” Carroll said. “That’s been an Achilles’ Heel of ours. We started the third quarter, gave up three in a row and I called a timeout and said ‘we’re practicing tomorrow if you guys don’t start boxing out.’ We weren’t losing this game because they were working harder than we were.”

Pickett was the main antagonist on the offensive glass, the Magic senior forward getting six of her 10 boards off her own team’s misses. She also led Mount with 12 points and added two steals and a pair of blocks.

Marie Meyers hit a jumper, then Mikel Lancit scored back-to-back buckets to put UM in front 21-19 for a brief lead midway through the third quarter. However, Pickett came back with a score inside then Hoffman caught all net on a right corner three that gave the Mount a 23-21 lead at the end of the quarter.

The Magic took a four-point lead when Pumilia found Pickett for a score, but the UM defense got enough stops and caught a couple breaks when Mount Saint Joseph couldn’t convert a few layups and open jumpers over the final 6:25.

“Once we held them to one shot and kept them out of transition, that’s when I knew we had a chance to beat them,” Carroll said.

Gohl said she’s really tried to adapt a more positive mindset the last few weeks, not getting mad at mistakes and looking to uplift her teammates. They uplifted her in a big way in the second half.

Lancit got the line, knocking down two, then Meyers put Upper Moreland in the bonus with 4:06 to play and icing her foul shots to tie the score. Hoffman split a pair of free throws with 1:46 left, the Mount’s last point of the game but on the next possession, Wood found Meyers in the corner and she did the rest, going to the rim and getting a runner to fall for the go-ahead basket.

“I was so proud of them. Marie, such a huge shot for her,” Gohl said. “I could not be more proud of her, she got out of her head and took the ball to the basket. Free throws, we’re not always the best free throw shooting team but we made some free throws which was huge for us, it’s so important.”

Both teams had already secured a bid to the PIAA tournament, no small feat in general, but especially meaningful for the Bears. This is UM’s first trip to the state tournament in Carroll’s tenure and even if it wasn’t that big in the overall grand picture, Tuesday’s win meant something to the players, who rushed the floor at the final buzzer.

“This is awesome, I’m so proud of our team,” Gohl said. “We really wanted this, winning districts was our main goal so losing there hurt but this has been awesome for us. It’s a great experience for everyone.”

Carroll, who teaches kindergarten in the school district, said he constantly jokes with his players that if he’s playing a game with one of his students, he wants to win. Even with the “prize” for winning a first round state game with the District 11 champion, as opposed to the District 12 champion that Mount Saint Joseph will face, it wasn’t a game the Golden Bears were going to take lightly, the players following their coach’s competitive line of thinking.

It was also a big win for the team in another way. Even for a 5A school, Upper Moreland is on the smaller end of the classification and the Bears haven’t had a lot of luck against private schools, most recently in their loss to Gwynedd Mercy Academy in the 5A quarterfinals.

“I think it’s more for our confidence,” Carroll said. “We know we have our hands full, the girls knew it wasn’t make or break if we won, but we like winning. The girls compete, they want to win and beat everyone.

“They take it as a bigger game when they play the private schools.”

By Quarter

UPPER MORELAND 10 | 2 | 9 | 9 || 30

MOUNT SAINT JOSEPH ACADEMY 10 | 6 | 7 | 3 || 26

Scoring

UM: Holly Gohl 13, Marie Meyers 6, Mikel Lancit 6, Alyssa Wiley 3, EmmyFaith Wood 2

MSJA: Georgia Pickett 12, Lauren Hoffman 8, Kiersten Pumilia 2, Chloe McGrorty 2, Carlie Shouldis 2