UPPER DUBLIN – Just because something is expected does not mean it is any less appreciated.

The Upper Dublin girls basketball team has been a fixture in the PIAA Tournament under coach Morgan Funsten. Wednesday night, the Cardinals had little trouble securing their place in it this season, the top seed in the District 1-6A field rolling past No. 16 Bensalem 64-25 in their second-round contest.

“It’s got a little different feel this year cause I think our girls have some bigger goals,” Funsten said. “But it’s just something that we don’t take for granted, something we’re very proud of that we’ve been able to consistently do. So, yeah, the win to get into states is always great.”

Upper Dublin has now made states in each of the last five years and 12 times in Funsten’s 14 seasons, a successful run that includes a PIAA-4A championship in 2018. The only years the Cards did not reach states were 2014 and 2021 – UD advancing to the district 6A semifinals in the latter but that season, shortened due to COVID-19, saw just one team qualify.

“The consistency is something I’m really proud of and, I mean, the girls are just amazing,” Funsten said. “The girls this year, they’ve taken things to another level with their leadership and their togetherness. They’ve worked hard at it and they not only have worked hard to become better individual players, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a team work as hard to become a team as this team has and it shows in practice and it shows in games.”

Tamia Clark led all scorers with 18 points, collecting 16 of those in the first half. Emilia Coleman recorded half of her 14 points in the third quarter while Ella Morris chipped in eight of her 10 points after the break.

“I think we’re really focused on districts cause that is something that we can definitely do and it’s something we really want to do,” said UD senior guard Megan Ngo, who had eight points. “But knowing that we could still have states after is really exciting.”

Upper Dublin advances to host No. 8 Garnet Valley in the semifinals 1 p.m. Saturday. The Jaguars defeated No. 9 William Tennent 53-35.

“I think that’s what makes us want it even more and especially for me, I’ll just say, this is my last year, I know the talent that we have and the opportunities that we have,” Ngo said. “I think, especially, I know me, Emilia, Tamia have talked about it before, I think we just really are trying to have fun but also we really want to win and we really want to keep playing together, cause it’s been so fun this year. And I think we just are practicing really hard, playing really hard because we just don’t want it to end.”

Grace McShane had 10 points for Bensalem (18-7), which can still earn its first PIAA appearance since 1983 through district playbacks. The Owls visit William Tennent Saturday.

Prior to Wednesday, Upper Dublin last played last Tuesday when the Cards completed a six-games-in-nine-days stretch by topping Central Bucks East for their second straight Suburban One League Tournament title. Against Bensalem, the start was a tad slow by the Cardinals’ standards – UD trailing 4-3 after four straight points from McShane – but Clark got Upper Dublin’s offense going with a personal 6-0 run to make it 9-4 and eventually the shots began to fall for the hosts.

“We played five games in six days and we were in such a competitive routine of preparing and showing up and playing hard and repeating that,” Funsten said. “And then we played Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we had two days off and then we played CB East in the (SOL) championship, now we just had eight days off, we didn’t scrimmage so I was expecting a little bit of rust and I think that’s how you could kind of describe the first half.

“I actually thought the girls were playing fine, just couldn’t make a shot.”

The Cardinals led 15-6 after the opening eight minutes with Clark starting the second quarter with six consecutive points, the junior’s two free throws at 5:36 putting UD up 21-6.

“The whole first half I was like we just got to keep shooting,” Ngo said. “I really thought that we played well in the first half, it was really just we weren’t making our shots and they play that good 1-3-1 zone.”

Bensalem cut the margin to 13 twice, the last time at 25-12 after a Sydney Daut basket but the Cardinals capped the half with an 8-2 run, getting 3-pointers from Ngo and Coleman then a Clark bucket to lead 33-14 at intermission.

UD began the third with two baskets off steals – first by Ngo then Morris – while Bridget DiMartile and Morris drained 3-pointers to make it 43-14. A Coleman bucket off a Ngo assist finished a 12-0 run to have the Cards up 31.

“We still had a pretty good lead at halftime,” Ngo said. “I really thought we just had to focus on us and I thought we came the third quarter strong and did that.”

Upper Dublin 64, Bensalem 25

Bensalem 6 8 4 7 – 25

Upper Dublin 15 18 17 14 – 64

Bensalem: Grace McShane 4 2-2 10; Sydney Daut 3 0-0 6; Kaleaya Wingate 1 0-0 3; Kamiya Alexander 1 0-0 2; Mary Beck 1 0-0 2; Kylie O’Neil 0 2-2 2; Totals 10 4-4 25.

Upper Dublin: Tamia Clark 6 5-6 18; Emilia Coleman 6 0-0 14; Ella Morris 4 0-0 10; Megan Ngo 3 0-0 8; Ryniah Sharpe 2 0-0 5; Bridget DiMartile 1 0-0 3; Shannon Connaughton 1 0-0 2; Lexi Ngo 1 0-0 2; Julia Scullen 1 0-0 2; Totals 25 5-6 64.

3-pointers: B-Wingate; UD-Coleman 2, Morris 2, M. Ngo 2, Clark, DiMartile, Sharpe.