City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
—

FORT WASHINGTON — Reilly McLaughlin delights in doing the little things.

The Upper Dublin senior, a 5-foot-8 guard and the only multi-sport athlete in the Cardinals’ rotation, is more than happy for his output at the end of the night to feature more rebounds, deflections and hustle plays than points. That’s even been the case since he found himself in the starting lineup midway through the season, after junior Noah Cohen suffered a broken arm early in January.

“That’s what I take pride in most in my game,” he said. “Passing, rebounding, getting the guys fired up on defense. I’m not much of a scorer, but I can score if I need to. Those are the things I really emphasize in my game — I let the other guys do their thing on offense.”

In a Suburban One League home semifinal game against Plymouth Whitemarsh on Saturday, McLaughlin did the little things — and he did them in a big way. A corner 3-pointer in the third quarter was the Cardinals’ only triple of the day, and he made several other important hustle plays late as Upper Dublin advanced to the SOL championship with a 57-43 win.

Upper Dublin’s 23rd consecutive win after a season-opening loss to Lower Merion earned the Cardinals a date with Upper Moreland at Bensalem on Monday. It was the SOL Liberty champs' third win this season over PW, the first coming by 20 points at UD on Jan. 7 -- when Cohen broke his arm -- and the second coming on Tuesday, when the Cardinals beat the Colonials 73-55.

Plymouth Whitemarsh (17-7) did an admirable job defensively on Upper Dublin star senior Ryan Mulroy this time around, holding him without a shot for the first 13-plus minutes of the game and preventing him from taking a single jumper the entire contest. Upper Dublin responded in kind by locking down PW standout junior Mani Sajid, limiting the Division I recruit to eight points (2-12 FG), forcing him into one tough jumper after another.

Mulroy, never forcing the action, still had a strong all-around game with 12 points (5-6 FG, 2-4 FT), five steals, three rebounds and three assets, but the Cardinals (23-1) were forced to find other sources of offense for most of the contest. 

In a game that didn’t have a true dagger or game-clinching run, McLaughlin’s 3-pointer off a feed from junior Brandon Altman with 1:40 left in the third felt like a critical one. The Cardinals were struggling from deep (1-13 3PT), Plymouth Whitemarsh hanging around, junior forward Michael Pereira (14 points, 5 rebounds) having success inside. 

That shot caused a noticeable change in tension in the Upper Dublin gym, an important shot from a player who doesn’t take many but who’d taken the starting spot of the team’s best shooter in Cohen. 

“It was awesome, hitting a 3 in this environment was amazing, and obviously putting us up 10 and getting the crowd back on our side a little bit definitely helped our momentum,” McLaughlin said. “We know after we score a few buckets, we’re going to buckle down on defense and get a stop.”

“It certainly was like a relief, it was just a big play,” Brooks said. “When you’re in those games, 10 points feels like 15. He’s not a guy who takes a lot of 3s, but that was a big hit for us there.”

Senior forward Idris Rines battled for a team-high 14 points despite dealing with some foul issues. Sophomore forward Justin Ragsdale added nine and four rebounds, including a few tough takes to the rim. His classmate, Horace Jackson IV had his own moment in the second quarter, scoring all six of his points during an impressive stretch that saw the 6-3 guard attacking the hoop with success. 

“Horace has so much talent, and he just has flashes like he did today where you go, man, he is going to be a really good player for us,” Brooks said. “He played with great energy, intensity, thought his defense was great, attacked the rim hard, took care of the ball. He’s had a really good January.”

McLaughlin made a couple other high-leverage plays down the stretch. His steal and feed ahead to Mulroy for a layup put the Cardinals up 11 with 3:26 to play. The next time down the court, Upper Dublin up 13, he just about sealed the win with a leaping offensive board. 

It’s those type of plays which is why Brooks has McLaughlin in the lineup, relying on the program’s only multi-sport athlete — a soccer standout, he also plays lacrosse in the spring — to bring something of a different element to a roster of basketball-only student-athletes. 

“He kind of fills the role that Chris Kohlbrenner brought for us last year,” Brooks said. “Good athlete, tough, smart, intense, doesn’t force anything, plays the right way. He’s got a swagger to him, an intensity. He brings all those intangibles to the game.”

McLaughlin missed most of his sophomore year of basketball due to a foot injury; he started to get varsity minutes at the end of last year, when Upper Dublin won the SOL championship but lost in the District 1 5A title game and in the opening round of the PIAA 5A state playoffs. 

They’re determined to add not one but two or three trophies to the case by the end of the season.

“We’re going to come fired up on Monday, we’re going to come ready and we’re going to get a W, hopefully, and then we’ll go get districts and then our biggest aspirations are states, obviously, hopefully we can pull it through for all three of them.”

By Quarter
UD:  14  |  16  |  12  |  15  ||  57
PW: 10  |  13  |  12  |   8   ||  43

Shooting
UD: 23-46 FG (1-13 3PT), 10-19 FT
PW: 15-36 FG (4-16 3PT), 9-16 FT

Scoring
UD: Idris Rines 14, Ryan Mulroy 12, Justin Ragsdale 9, Kobe Bazemore 8, Reilly McLaughlin 6, Horace Jackson IV 6, James Castronuovo 2

PW: Michael Pereira 14, Mani Sajid 8, Buddy Denard 8, Terron Davis 5, Eric Conicello 4, Jack Hayes 2, Ehab Ahmed 2

~~~

Upper Moreland 40, Central Bucks South 39

To get to the SOL championship game, Upper Moreland used a big third quarter to take a 10-point lead into the fourth, and then had to hang on. CB South limited the Golden Bears to just three points in the final frame, pulling all the way back, but couldn’t get a good final look in a 40-39 final.

With two seconds left, CB South (18-6) had the ball to inbound it under its own basket, but Upper Moreland (20-4) forced a pass out to near midcourt, the Titans’ long 3-pointer no good at the buzzer.

It’s the ninth win in a row for Upper Moreland, which tied with Cheltenham atop the SOL Freedom for its first league championship of any kind in more than four decades. Now the Golden Bears have a chance to pick up their biggest win in quite a while on Monday.

“It’s something different for us, but it’s a great feeling,” head coach Dan Heiland said. “We’re really excited to have this opportunity, we don’t take it for granted, the fact that we’re able to get to this point, it was by no means an easy two games to get here, and we’re just looking forward to the challenge ahead.”

Jadon Cybok led Upper Moreland with 12 points in the win, including three 3-pointers during a third quarter that saw the Golden Bears outscore the Titans 22-7. That helped earn them a game against an Upper Dublin team that already dealt them a 69-48 loss at UD on Dec. 28. Heiland and his squad know exactly what they’re up against.

“They’re a team that has all the pieces that you want, they’re built for a deep playoff run, a championship-style team,” he said. “They have a very strong starting five, really good bench depth across the board. They have size, length, they’re a very good team, very solid across the board. We’ve got to execute offensively, play tough defense and play our style.”

By Quarter
UM:    8   |   7   |  22  |   3   ||  40
CBS:  9   |   11  |   7   |  12  ||  39

Scoring
UM: Jadon Cybok 12, Nate Best 10, Larry Hughes 8, Anthony Carson 5, Colson Campbell 2, Luke Roussel 2, Cannon Campbell 1

CBS: Brett Barrett 11, Danny Gies 6, Ben Harrison 5, Kayode Adebayo 6, Alex Shahin 4, Connor Thompson 3, Shane Ferrell 2, Leo Medwid 2