City of Basketball Love

By Ryan Coyle (@ryancoyle35)
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The first month-and-a-half of 2024 has been quite friendly to the Upper Dublin boys basketball program. 

After a loss to start the year Jan. 3, the Cardinals have reeled off 13 straight wins by by an average margin 20.3 PPG. The first victory over Plymouth Whitemarsh in a decade came during the stretch. As did the program’s first outright division title since 2002.

On Tuesday night, the Cardinals captured their first SOL Tournament trophy after knocking off CB West 49-43 in the title game at Holy Family, continuing to turn 2024 into a year to remember.

Upper Dublin boys basketball celebrates after beating Central Bucks West to win the Suburban One League Tournament championship on Tuesday night. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

“I’m speechless right now,” junior wing Ryan Mulroy said. “If you told me last year when our season ended that we would be in this position where we won our league in the regular season and this tournament I wouldn’t believe you. I’m so proud of every guy on this team. Every single one of these guys worked so hard in the offseason.”

The victory gives Upper Dublin a 22-3 record on the season as they head into the District 1 playoffs as the No. 2 seed in 5A. CB West enters the District 1 6A tournament with an 18-7 record and the No. 11 seed as it will host Pennsbury on Friday night.

Upper Dublin got out of the gates hot on Tuesday night, knocking down four 3-pointers in the first quarter as they jumped out to a 21-8 lead as Mulroy led the Cardinals with eight points in the frame.

“I was so excited, just seeing all those shots fall, I knew it was going to be a fun night,” Mulroy said. “I’m so proud of everyone.”

The Cardinals were without Chris Kohlbrenner, a usual starter due to a rolled ankle and were without Noah Cohen, a shooter off the bench due to a stomach bug, forcing a few guys to step up into some adjusted roles.

Sophomore guard Reilly McLaughlin got the start in place of Kohlbrenner after being mainly a JV player for the bulk of the season and made his presence felt with a buzzer beater off an offensive rebound to end the first quarter. 

“To step up in a championship game and give good minutes like that, we don’t win the game without him.” Upper Dublin head coach Derek Brooks said of the sophomore guard. 

Upper Dublin’s hot shooting first quarter didn’t carry over into the rest of the game, as they made only one 3-pointer the rest of the way and CB West began to climb back into it.

A strong third quarter from CB West wing Julian Phillips that saw him score six of his game-high 17 points allowed the Bucks to head into the fourth quarter trailing 38-30 as the momentum felt like it was starting to flip. 

“They’re a good team,” Brooks said. “I knew that lead wasn’t going to be safe with a senior laden group. They are well coached. Coach Sherman does a really good job with them. It felt like the last two quarters was like hang on for dear life. Sometimes it’s like that when you’ve got a lead.

A nine-point quarter from West’s Roman Kuelsa (16 points) fueled a comeback effort, cutting the lead to 43-37 with 1:52 left. Matt Engle hit a layup in traffic for the Bucks, drawing a foul to make the game 43-39 with 1:20 left, but was unable to make the free throw and CB West wasn’t able to cut the lead anymore after that as UD finished off the 49-43 victory.

Upper Dublin’s last loss was to CB East on Jan. 3, 61-60, when they were unable to close out a tight matchup. For a young team that relies on a majority of underclassmen in their rotation like Idris Rines (11 points) and Kobe Bazemore (7 points), outside of seniors Brady Fogle (6 points) and Anthony Olivera-Schultz, it was another sign of growth for the young Cardinals team to be able to close out the SOL Tournament title game in a packed environment.

“Our guys have done a really good job the second half of the year, we’ve got a young team, this is new for a lot of the guys, so they have really learned how to close games,” Brooks said. “When to hold it, when to shoot it. I’m super proud of these guys.”

While on the this dominant stretch of basketball since the calendar flipped to 2024, it hasn’t got lost in the shuffle in the Upper Dublin locker room just how special of a season they are currently in the midst of. But, there is still more work to be done.

“It’s just the best feeling,” Mulroy said. “We beat PW for the first time in I think ten years. We won our division outright for the first time in 22 years. Win the league, win this tournament, it’s just awesome. Jobs not finished though. We’ve got to take care of business in districts. We lost back to back, my freshman and sophomore year in the first round of districts and we were favored too. We’ve got to take care of business next Wednesday.”

The Cardinals will play the winner of West Chester Rustin (No. 7) and Penncrest (No. 10) next Wednesday at home in the 5A quarterfinals. Last season, Upper Dublin was riding a 13-game winning streak heading into a matchup with PW and lost, unable to get its 14th win in a row.

This year, the team potentially standing in the way of their 14th win in a row and a district title is the team that ended their season last year.

West Chester Rustin. 

Will history repeat itself this year? Or is this group of Cardinals different?

“Everyone on this team is bought in,” Mulroy said.” We all want it. We’re hungry. We want to keep winning games and I think that is going to take us a long way if we continue to do that.”

By Quarter
CB West:          8   |  12  |  10  |  13  ||  43
Upper Dublin:  21  |   9   |   8   |  11  ||  49

Shooting
CB West: 16-37 FG (5-20 3PT), 6-9 FT
Upper Dublin: 14-28 FG (5-11 3PT), 12-17 FT 

Scoring
CB West: Phillips 17, Kuelsa 15, Engle 5, Gugger 2, Janikowski 2, Gallagher 2

Upper Dublin: Mulroy 13, Rines 11, Bazemore 7, Fogle 6,Altman 6, Castronuovo 3, McLaughlin 2 Olivera-Schultz 1