City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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WILLOW GROVE — A first-round District 1 Class 5A boys basketball matchup between No. 8 Upper Moreland and No. 9 Holy Ghost Prep turned into a game worthy of ESPN Instant Classic, High School Edition. 

From the opening tip to the closing whistle, it was 32 minutes of high-energy, high-level hoops, combined with no shortage of clutch shots, defensive plays and one very worthy celebration by Upper Moreland at the end of a thrilling, come-from-behind, 79-76 win.

“Words can’t describe that game,” Upper Moreland senior Alex Best said. “Everyone wishes they could play in a game like that.”

“It’s awesome,” senior Jimmy Perce added. “This is what we worked for the whole season, you know? It’s just what we’ve been practicing and playing for the whole year.”

It was a measure of revenge for Upper Moreland (14-9), which had gone to Holy Ghost Prep in last year’s district first round and had its season end in an 18-point loss in Northeast Philly.

Both Best and Perce came up with clutch plays down the stretch as the Golden Bears overcame a six-point deficit with 2:20 to play, but it would be easier to find someone in the Upper Moreland rotation who didn’t do something critical to get it to the win. 

There was Best’s feed to 6-foot-10 senior forward Sean Murphy to cut the Holy Ghost lead to four, the last of Murphy’s 14 points. Or a couple big defensive plays from 6-2 junior Colson Campbell, who contributed 13 points to the win but more importantly three steals, including one to give the Golden Bears the ball back after they tied it with a minute to play. Campbell dove on the floor, passing it back to Best, who flung it ahead to Perce; one quick dribble got Perce in position to go up with it, just ahead of a Firebirds defender streaking down the floor.

It was a big moment for the senior reserve guard, who also hit an important 3-pointer earlier in the period. 

“Yeah, I mean, it’s just things that you dream of your whole life,” Perce said. “It’s just a moment that you just imagine your whole life and you work for, when you’re six or seven years old, that you work for, and these are the types of moments you want to reach and accomplish.”

“I’m very proud,” Upper Moreland coach Dan Heiland said of the 6-2 guard. “He’s a captain, he doesn’t get a ton of minutes every game but he deserved and earned every minute he played tonight and he proved why he should be out there at the end of the game.”

Best, who finished with 19 points, six assists and three rebounds, hit two foul shots with 23 seconds left for the game’s final lead change, after Holy Ghost star junior Adrian Varella (24 points) had canned a 3-pointer just seconds before.

Freshman guard Brayden Martin had the most obvious big buckets, a corner 3-pointer off a feed from Campbell to tie it at 73 (before Campbell’s big steal), as well as two foul shots with 6.5 seconds left to provide the final margin. 

The 6-foot-3 freshman, whose father Bryan Martin played at Hatboro and then went on to play four years of Division-I hoops at St. Francis (Pa.), finished with 12 points and six rebounds, 

“I was kinda nervous at first,” he said about the big shot, “but when I knocked it down, I was in the moment.”

“As a freshman, to be in that position in a district playoff game, he doesn’t shy away from the spotlight,” Heiland said. “To knock down that shot and then the free throws towards the end, he really showed that he’s no longer a freshman.”

The sizable crowd inside Upper Moreland’s gymnasium had to wait until the final buzzer sounded to exhale, only after a clean Holy Ghost look from the corner hit the far iron and bounced clear of the hoop.

“I’m super excited and happy for our kids,” Heiland said. “They truly worked for this. The last few days of practice have been some of our best practices from a competitive standpoint, and guys are really, I think, now understanding that it’s win or go home at this point and they don’t want to go home, they don’t want to lose, they’re digging in deeper. 

All of that capped a game which saw Holy Ghost Prep shoot 30-for-49 (61.2%) overall and 13-of-22 (59%) from the 3-point arc but still get out-gunned by Upper Moreland, which was no slouch from the floor at 30-of-60 (50%) overall and 11-of-25 (44%) from deep. 

"The message for the juniors is we came a long way, but we're not where we want to be yet, but it was a fun run to get to the point where we were," Heston said. "The juniors see what we're capable of doing, and now we just have to do it for a whole season."

It was clear from early on that all in attendance were in for a treat. It was 26-23 Upper Moreland after just one quarter, the teams combining to go 9-of-14 from 3-point range in the opening eight minutes. Holy Ghost Prep never went away, and it was 41-41 at halftime, then 54-54 after three quarters, neither team budging an inch. 

Along with Varella — who grabbed seven rebounds, dished out five assists and blocked three shots in addition to his scoring — Holy Ghost (12-11) got strong games from juniors Robbie Segarich (16 points, three assists), Tommy Nahill (11 points, four blocks) and Zak Sharlin (10 points, five rebounds, three assists), among others. 

The win puts Upper Moreland into the district quarterfinals for the third time in four years, after the Golden Bears made it to the district semifinals two years back before losing to eventual runner-up Radnor. 

Heiland’s group will head down to Chester County to face top seed Unionville (20-3), which lost in last year’s District 1-5A title game and this year’s Ches-Mont semifinals. Even if they lose, the Golden Bears’ season will continue in play-backs, with one more win confirming them a state playoff berth; six of the eight teams left in the District 1 5A field will make it to the PIAA field. 

After what happened Friday night, Upper Moreland’s only going to be thinking about one possible result next Wednesday.

“We battled with adversity right there,” Best said. “You’re going to get hit in the mouth, you’ve got to hit back harder. Just come back and never give up, never put your head down and keep fighting as a team, that’s what it really is.”

By Quarter
Upper Moreland:  26  |  15  |  13  |  25  ||  79
Holy Ghost Prep: 23  |  18  |  16  |  22  ||  76

Shooting
Upper Moreland: 30-60 FG (11-25 3PT), 8-11 FT
Holy Ghost Prep: 30-49 FG (13-22 3PT), 3-7 FT

Scoring
Upper Moreland: Alex Best 19, Sean Murphy 14, Colson Campbell 13, Brayden Martin 12, Anthony Carson 6, Jimmy Perce 5, Larry Hughes 5, Nate Best 5

Holy Ghost Prep: Adrien Varella 24, Robbie Segarich 16, Mark Stenardo 11, Tommy Nahill 11, Zak Sharlin 10, Gavin McLaughlin 3, Adam McDonald 1

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First Round
8) Upper Moreland 79, 9) Holy Ghost Prep 76
5) Pottstown 59, 12) West Chester East 45
10) Penncrest 50, 7) West Chester Rustin 36
6) Sun Valley 43, 11) Marple Newtown 41

Quarterfinals (Weds., Feb. 21)
1) Unionville vs. 8) Upper Moreland
4) Phoenixville vs. 5) Pottstown
2) Upper Dublin vs. 10) Penncrest
3) Radnor vs. 6) Sun Valley