City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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For three straight years, Upper Dublin’s had an incomplete postseason.

Whether it was injuries or factors outside their control, the Flying Cardinals didn’t have all their pieces in play by the time their season ended each of the past three years. There’s nothing holding them back as the new season starts and while it is a long time between now and the start of the postseason, UD has a lot to like.

Upper Dublin is entering the season with high expectations and confident it has the team to meet them.

“I think we deserve the preseason accolades, but it also doesn’t guarantee anything,” UD coach Morgan Funsten said. “Seeing how hungry these girls were in the offseason to individually improve and in turn, our team improve, I don’t think we have to worry about being complacent in expecting it to just be given to us.

“With our seniors, every year they have gone through something that prevented us from being at full strength at the end of the year, so I think we’re looking forward to finishing how we start and having that offseason where they just got to play together. It’s been really fun to be a part of.”

UD returns its top six players from last season and it’s arguable they’ve all made improvements from last year’s first round exit in the PIAA Class 6A tournament. Perhaps most important is the fact that unlike last year, there aren’t any looming questions over the availability of any of those players for the first game of the season.

This time last year, Megan Ngo was still in the final stretch of her recovery from a torn ACL that had sidelined her for the entire 2023-24 postseason. On top of that, Emilia Coleman wasn’t even sure if she’d be eligible to play at all after transferring from Gwynedd Mercy Academy.

While Ngo did return for opening night and Coleman was eventually granted eligibility for the regular season, the Cardinals were never quite 100 percent and far from their fullest in the postseason with Coleman ineligible to play after the SOL tournament.

“It’s going to be a question of how well we can fit together as a team,” Funsten said. “Last year, with Emilia coming on late and Meg not really being able to play until the first day of the season, then having two freshmen play so many important minutes, we really had to develop on the court during games.

“Now we’ve had a chance to play more games in the offseason and just come together and play.”

Ngo, who is committed to FDU, has looked very much like her old self this fall and has jettisoned the knee brace she had to play in all of last season. The 5-foot-4 point guard feels much stronger coming into this season and is looking forward to running what could be a very productive offense.

The senior agreed the lack of lingering questions or setbacks from the year prior has allowed the Cardinals to focus solely on the season and chasing the high expectations they’ve set for themselves. At the same time, Ngo doesn’t see a finished product yet and thinks there is more for the team to tap into.

“I think this part of it has made us more excited for the season and the opportunities that we could have this year,” Ngo said. “We have definitely been able to focus more on getting better as a team.

‘It’s exciting to see everyone working hard and preparing for the season and it’s going to start in practice. If we want to get to where we want to go we have to work hard in practice and make each other better.”

Coleman, who committed to La Salle in January, is also free of any eligibility restraints this year. The 5-foot-11 wing is still shooting the ball as smooth as ever and she’s playing with more confidence putting the ball on the floor and going at defenders.

Her absence in the playoffs was most greatly felt on the defensive end last year. Coleman was UD’s leading rebounder in the regular season and she’s a terrific defender with the size and quickness to guard on the perimeter or on the inside.

“I didn’t play the last few games because I wasn’t allowed to so I know for me, I’m really ready to come back,” Coleman said. “I want to go far with this team. Watching from the bench, I could see everyone’s frustration after the losses, we didn’t like it, we didn’t like the way we ended and all of us are looking for a better end.”

Last year was a real breakout for junior Tamia Clark, who only continued to get better this summer playing with Philly Rise’s U16 team. The 5-foot-9 wing is an outstanding athlete and her all-around basketball game is catching up to her natural abilities.

Clark has looked plenty confident attacking the basket but her outside shot is also getting more consistent and she’s an absolute terror in the open floor. She’s also seeing that growth pay off in some increased attention at the next level with La Salle and Drexel having extended scholarship offers and plenty more programs checking in.

“I’m just trying to be more aggressive on offense and defense,” Clark said. “I’m also telling myself to be more of a leader on the team because I am a junior now and we have more freshmen coming in, I want to show them the way.”

While there’s a lot of talk about the Cardinals and what they could be this season, Clark and her teammates are trying to use it in the right manner.

“I embrace it but I also don’t really listen to it as much,” Clark said. “What really matters is us as a team and focusing within ourselves. What really matters is how we perform and how we stick together as a team.”

Sophomores Ella Morris and Lexi Ngo round out UD’s returning contingent of basketball-first players. Morris started all of last season, the guard an effective floor spacer as a three-point shooter who worked to add more this summer playing with the Runnin’ Rebels and will be an important outlet again this season.

Ngo is the third of her family to come through the program, following 2024 grad Amy - now at Holy Family - and Megan. The team’s sixth player in regular season, Lexi stepped into a starting role in the playoffs and like her older sisters, only continued to work on her game this summer playing with the Comets 15U GUAA team and will both back up her sister and allow Megan to play off the ball some when they share the floor together.

“The core we return, they’re gym rats and the message this offseason has been that you’ve all improved because of your hard work and that’s really cool to see but how are we going to sacrifice and fit together and show we’re not just an all-star team of individuals,” Funsten said. “These girls have the right mindset going in. Just like every team, it’s going to take a little bit of time for people to understand their newfound roles this year but every single one of these girls improved on the individual level and that has the makings for us to improve as a team as well.”

The Cardinals can claim a roster of Division I athletes this year. Ngo and Coleman are committed at the next level for basketball and Clark is all but a lock to join them there but the team’s supporting cast are pretty stellar athletes in their own right.

Junior Bridget DiMartile rejoined the team right at the end of the fall after another strong season at forward for UD’s soccer program. Her future is on the lacrosse field, the three-sport standout announcing her commitment to Michigan in September, but she’ll be entering her third year in the basketball rotation this winter.

Senior Maeve Hogan and junior Shannon Connaughton are also three-sport athletes and like DiMartile, they are superb lacrosse players. Hogan, who saw some spot appearances mainly in a defensive role last year, will be off to Marquette next year while Connaughton gave a verbal commitment to Villanova in the fall.

Among the incoming freshman class, Ryniah Sharpe has shown some flashes during the team’s fall slate and may have a chance to see some minutes in certain matchups.

“We worked really hard over the summer just to get to this point so I think we’re ready for the season to start,” Clark said. “We’re eager to show off what we’ve all been working on and how we can perform as a team. We’re looking to come back better than we were last year.”

Funsten has loaded up the schedule this year to prepare the Cardinals for the postseason. They open at Conestoga and host Altoona in early December before a challenging back end of the 2025 part of the schedule features games with Sidwell Friends at the Shore Games Showcase and Notre Dame Academy and Villa Maria Academy in Cardinal O’Hara’s holiday showcase.

UD will also play McDonogh at the Blue Star Showcase at Jefferson in early January, take on Imhotep Charter at the She Got Game Classic event at the Sixth Man Center on Jan. 10, face Pennsbury, CB East and Audenried in a three-game road slate and are scheduled to play Friends Central as part of the Maggie Lucas Classic at the end of January.

“It starts with holding ourselves accountable,” Coleman said. “If someone’s down, we have to pick them up. We’re all going to have our bad days so I think us being there for each other will be really helpful and if we can keep picking each other up, that will help us go where we want to.”

Coleman acknowledged there are high expectations on the Cardinals from outside the program but they’re equally high inside the UD gym. Looking back on last year, Clark said the group was “disappointed” with their final stretch of the season. It motivated her this summer and she could see it had the same effect on her teammates.

“I am just really looking forward to competing for one more year with the team,” Ngo said. “I talked with T and Mil the first day of tryouts and we just all agreed that we don’t want to have any regrets this season and I think that is so far what has driven our practices and mindset on the year.”