BOYS BASKETBALL: Upper Dublin, Upper Moreland advance to SOL Tournament final

No boys’ basketball team has ever repeated as Suburban One League tournament champion and Upper Dublin is aiming to be the first.

Getting back to the final meant having to beat a potent Plymouth Whitemarsh team for a second time in five days, the two having met last Tuesday in the regular season finale. Both teams were playing their third game in that same five day span, so UD senior forward Idris Rines noted mentality was the name of the game on Saturday, which ended with the Flying Cardinals claiming a 57-43 victory.

“It’s mental and you have to have heart,” Rines said. “This game, everybody was tired, you’re playing two, three games in a row almost. We knew coming into it they’d played a tough game at Bensalem so they were tired also so it was going to be who wanted it more and who had more heart.”

Rines led Upper Dublin with 14 points, the Cardinals (23-1) turning in another balanced effort as they extended their school-record win streak to 23 games. Ryan Mulroy added 12, Justin Ragsdale had nine and Kobe Bazemore added eight to help lead the scoring effort while the team’s supporting cast had another collectively solid effort.

PW (17-7) was paced by 14 points from Michael Pereira. The Colonials will likely receive a first round bye in the District 1-6A tournament.

With Upper Dublin having not lost since its opening game at Lower Merion, Rines explained the Cardinals are extremely motivated to just keep winning. The SOL tournament has generated mixed reactions since its inception, but the Cardinals have bought into the opportunity it provides to win a championship.

“Our coach’s mentality and our players’ mentality is perfect, we don’t want to lose,” Rines said. “We hate losing. Even with our win streak, we want to keep winning games. Who wants to lose? We take it really seriously.

“We can win the Liberty Division but if we win this, that means we win everything in the league.”

Rines felt the team’s defensive effort was the standout on Saturday. UD didn’t shoot the ball as well as usual, but the senior felt he and his teammates had a collectively strong focus on that end of the floor.

“Even when they came back, we never folded,” Rines said. “We never backed down from the challenge.”

Upper Moreland 40, Central Bucks South 39

Upper Moreland got some payback for one of its few regular season losses, edging Central Bucks South to reach its first SOL final.

CB South had nudged the Golden Bears 64-60 on Jan. 11, so it wasn’t surprising to see another close game between the two. This one required the Bears to survive a furious fourth quarter that saw the Titans outscore the hosts 12-3, UM surviving thanks to a 22-7 margin in the third quarter.

Senior Jadon Cybok led UM with 12 points, the sharpshooter nailing a trio of threes. Nate Best had 10 points and Larry Hughes added eight for Upper Moreland (20-4), as the SOL Freedom co-champions continued their best season in four decades.

Brett Barrett’s 11 paced CB South (18-6), the Titans getting six points from Danny Gies and Kayode Adebayo. South will await its District 1-6A playoff seed, the Titans well in line for a first round bye.

Upper Moreland’s chance at its first SOL tournament title will also be a chance to avenge a regular season loss, UM losing to Upper Dublin in the Cardinals’ holiday tournament in late December.