City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
__

KING OF PRUSSIA — Jen McCarthy’s team kept things “interesting” last season.

Every night, McCarthy sent the freshman backcourt of Kennedy Coles and Levayda Luqua onto the floor against opponents one, two, three years older with hopes they could lead the Vikings to victory

The result was a mixed bag — some ups and some downs — during a 10-12 season. 

Coles and Luqua are back again, another year older and wiser. They’re still learning but so far there have been more ups than downs.

“Coming into this year, I was hoping that maturity gap would close, but we’re a young team still,” Upper Merion third-year head coach Jen McCarthy said. “You could say we’re still young with two sophomores leading my backcour. There’s going to be ebbs and flows There’s going to be places they can improve on. There’s going to be stupid, silly mistakes, but I think they’re trusting in me that it’s a process.”

The Vikings’ sophomore guards led the way Friday night in a 34-20 win over Pottstown. Coles scored a team-high 12 points and Fuqua added another 11. Pottstown sophomore Jayanna Hill paced the Trojans with 14 points.

It was a slow start for Upper merion (4-1) as the Vikings fell behind 8-2 in the first quarter. Fuqua woke the offense up in the second quarter with six points after a scoreless first. 

Fuqua, a 5-5 guard who plays her spring and summer ball with Fencor, led the team in scoring at 10.8 ppg last season. She’s averaging double figures once again this season.

“(The biggest challenge was) being a freshman and having that weight on my shoulder to be the starting point guard as a freshman,” Fuqua said.

“I feel like I’m more comfortable on the court and off the court with the team,” she added. “We have a better chemistry that we’ve built and team chemistry, so I feel like we’ve come together.”

Coles is a 5-4 guard who plays her grassroots hoops with Team DAPA. She was new to the school district last year but found a fit right away with Coles, finishing second on the team in scoring at 8.6 ppg and providing some terrific defense. 

She was primarily a track standout before shifting her focus to basketball this summer. Her speed helped her be a force on the defensive end with four steals Friday. Coles also showed off an improved shooting stroke with a pair of threes in her highest scoring output of the season thus far.

“I knew that I was very good defensively and I can make space for my other teammates, so I was focused on that, and then over the summer I worked on shooting more and my offense,” Coles said.

This year’s seniors Olivia Smith, Addie Eaton, Chloe Kokenberger and Avery Fox had no problems letting the young guards take charge on the court last season and once again this year. Junior guard Devon Maiden has been around the block as well.

The seniors are a group that was part of a winless campaign in 2021 and a 4-17 campaign (4-9 Frontier Division) in McCarthy’s first year. After an 0-3 start, Upper Merion improved to 10-12 (6-4 Frontier) in 2022-23. 

“They went through the trenches,” McCarthy said. “Credit to the seniors. They have literally gone through some of the worst times of basketball and they stuck it out. My seniors may not score the most points, but they do so much more than that. They are leaders on the court, off the court. They are getting those girls to do the right things.”

As moments of Friday’s game showed, the Vikings’ young backcourt is still a work in progress, but some of the lessons are starting to sink in. 

Fuqua and Coles both mentioned a focus of this year is to play with a deliberate pace. Coles mentioned improving discipline. It’s getting better even if it’s not quite where the team wants it to be yet.

“We are definitely 10 times better than last year,” Coles said. “I would say we are more disciplined than we were last year even though we’re not as disciplined we could be more. But we definitely have progressed from last year.”

Fuqua can see the strides made as well.

“Take more control as the floor general and go through the plays, take control, have your speed, have it at our speed,” Fuqua said. “I’m still learning with how it goes and how the game is, but I feel like the more I learn the better I get.”

Upper Merion dropped its final PAC game against Pope John Paul II last season when it coughed up a 13-point fourth-quarter lead. The loss cost the Vikings a spot in the league playoffs and helped keep them out of the District 1-5A playoffs as they finished just two spots outside the 12-team field.

The Vikings are thinking postseason this year. A return to the playoffs and beyond would make that defeat just one — albeit a painful one — of many growing pains for a program  and players pushing their way forward.

“That was something I really had nightmares,” McCarthy said. “It reared its’s ugly head. But I think and I hope, eventually we learn from that.”

~~~

Upper Merion 34, Pottstown 20

By Quarter:

Plymouth Whitemarsh: 8 | 0 | 4 |8 || 20

Upper Dublin: 2 | 15 | 6 | 11 || 34

Scoring

Pottstown: Jayanna Hill 14, Madison Beasley 6.

Upper Dublin: Kennedy Coles 12, Levayda Fuqua 11, Olivia Smith 7, Devon Maiden 2, Addie Eaton 2.