City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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KING OF PRUSSIA — Kennedy Coles got in foul trouble, and the emotions kicked in. 

The Upper Merion senior guard picked up her third whistle midway through the second quarter of a Tuesday night game against Owen J. Roberts, a tough break for a team that counts on her being on the court for as close to 32 minutes as possible. She went over into a corner of the Vikings’ gym and stood there for a moment, facing the wall, before her father Dante Coles came over to talk to her. 

They’re moments in games she’s had before, when the emotions take over.

“Before my dad came over I just try to do my meditation, try to calm myself down,” she said. “Just telling myself you’re okay, everybody doesn’t have their best games, you have to change your mentality, you have to find that inner player that you know you are and just uplift myself.

“And if that doesn’t work, he’ll find his way over, and he’ll just start talking to me, telling me I’m a dog, I’ve got to keep on playing hard, find that dog that I have in me. It usually works, and it did work [tonight].”

Upper Merion's Kennedy Coles (2) dribbles past OJR's Maggie Thompson in the second half of Tuesday's game. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Coles spent the rest of the second quarter on the bench, but came out of the locker room with a reset mindset. Playing the entire second half as if her foul count was at zero, Coles led the way as the Vikings mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Wildcats, 47-43. 

The Niagara-bound guard finished with a 19-point, 17-rebound double-double, adding five steals and two assists as she showcased her athleticism, basketball IQ and ability to hit tough shots from all over the court. She played every second of the third and fourth quarters, despite picking up her fourth foul with 4:57 to play, making one critical play after another down the stretch.

Upper Merion trailed by eight entering the final frame, but won it 16-4 to defend its home court. 

Coles had two buckets during a 6-0 fourth-quarter run, including a pull-up in the lane off a steal to cut the gap to 41-38 with exactly four minutes to play. Another steal and feed ahead to sophomore guard Emily Nguyen put Upper Merion (8-4) up two points with 1:18 to go; she added two free throws with 19.4 seconds left for the final points of the game, atoning for a couple misses just a few seconds before. 

“I think freshman Kennedy, sophomore Kennedy, that emotion would have just kept turning and turning and turning,” Upper Merion coach Jen Stilwell said. “She’s starting to realize that as a senior, that you can control your emotions and control what you’re able to do, and she turned it around, which was great in the second half.”

“I would say I learned better during my junior year, at the end of the school year, going into AAU season, my coach definitely helped me with my mentality,” she said. “I knew that that’s not going to be acceptable at the (Division I) level so I knew I had to change my mindset, so I just worked on that.”

Senior guard Levayda Fuqua added 13 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals for the Vikings, including two clutch free throws to tie the game up with 1:52 to play. 

The standout individual matchup on the court Tuesday night saw Coles, the PAC’s only committed Division I hooper, go up against OJR freshman Maggie Thompson, a talented combo guard and likely D-I prospect in her own right. (Ed. note: Thompson picked up her first D-I offer, from Drexel, an hour after this story was published. Drexel assistant Mike Perretta was in the stands Tuesday night). 

Thompson finished with 18 points, six rebounds, six blocks, four assists and two steals as she had some impressive finishes at the rim. But both teams struggled to find consistency from the floor, each shooting around 30%. 

Upper Merion senior Levayda Fuqua (1) drives to the hoop in the second half of Upper Merion's win. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The Wildcats (6-6) in particular missed a number of chances around the rim, though they generally dominated inside thanks to the presence of sophomore forward Kira Sorzano (15 points, 18 rebounds) and junior forward Lia Bonney (6 points, 13 rebounds, 6 blocks).

Nguyen did a quality job defensively on Thompson, switching onto her after Coles picked up her first two fouls, and making life tough for the talented 5-10 guard the rest of the way. 

“Emily really stepped up to the plate and did a fantastic job defensively, I was really proud of her for that,” said McCarthy, who also gave credit to ‘24 Upper Merion grad Colin Hirshorn for serving as a practice player this week to help imitate Thompson’s abilities; Hirshon’s younger sister, freshman Lauren Hirshorn, starts for the Vikings. 

Upper Merion made it through the first round of play in the PAC Frontier with a 4-1 division record, tied for first with Pope John Paul II and Pottsgrove. Tuesday’s win was their fourth in five games, though they were without Coles due to illness in a loss to William Tennent on Dec. 30. They have three more games, including two more PAC crossovers with Boyertown (Jan. 8) and at Phoenixville (Jan. 13), before the second round of Frontier play starts on Thurs., Jan. 15 with a visit from Norristown. 

They’re currently around No. 15 in the District 1 6A rankings, six wins shy of last year’s mark, in position for a top-16 spot and a guaranteed home game in the district playoffs; getting to the top eight, which would mean a bye into the second round, will be a challenge in a deep district. 

Either way, they can go into the stretch run with the knowledge that they can overcome trailing for the majority of the game to win at the end, even on a night where things aren’t looking good for long stretches. 

“I think if you look at us two years ago, even a year ago, we go down eight points, it’s like turmoil,” McCarthy said, “but tonight it didn’t happen. We got into foul trouble and we overcame it, which years before we would bury ourselves. Kudos to them, it’s just maturity over the years which just helped us.”

By Quarter
OJR: 16  |   8   |  15  |   4   ||  43
UM:   10  |  11  |  10  |  16  ||  47 

Shooting
OJR: 19-61 FG (0-9 3PT), 9-17 FT
UM: 17-62 FG (0-9 3PT), 9-14 FT

Scoring
OJR: Maggie Thompson 18, Kira Sorzano 15, Lia Bonney 6, Sarina Smith 2, Lyvia Russell 2

UM: Kennedy Coles 19, Levayda Fuqua 13, Emily Nguyen 6, Gabriella Callison 6, Piper Edge 2, Lauren Hirshorn 1