District 1 5A boys: Unionville downs Upper Dublin to secure its first title since 1981

Unionville senior James Anderson picked up the 2024 District 1 5A trophy near midcourt at West Chester with classmates Charlie Kammeier and Ryan Brown behind him.

For a second, Anderson stood there, his hands on the base of the golden cup and his team waiting for his next move.

“I kind of just froze for a little bit, I didn’t know what to do,” Anderson said. “I was looking at Chuck and Ryan, and they didn’t know what to do.”

Fortunately for the trio, Longhorns coach Chris Cowles knew exactly what to do.

“Lift it up,” Cowles said with a smile. Anderson complied, and the Unionville student section eagerly crowding near the court roared its approval.

“That’s kind of like our team process,” Anderson said. “You do what Cowles says, and it’ll figure itself out.”

It’s a process that has worked well all year long for Unionville, which captured its first district trophy since 1981 on Thursday night with a 61-36 win over Upper Dublin. And despite the historic victory for the program, which fell in the 2006 and 2023 district title games, the Longhorns’ buzzer celebration was relatively subdued.

“Last year we had opportunities to win a lot of things, we were in the Ches-Mont championship and district championship, and lost both of those,” Kammeier said. “It feels good to win something, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to win the state championship. This is just another step toward that. We’re excited.”

That understated nature fits Cowles’ demeanor; he was all business on the sideline till the very end. After the win, the 33-year-old coach congratulated those on the bench, starting with assistant coaches Matthew Porecca, Justin Martin, and Eddie Anderson, then all the players.

The coach let a couple of smiles slipped through, including when Anderson finally raised the trophy high.

“We’ve been talking a lot about discipline. … If we’re disciplined, we’re going to have fun,” he said. “I told [the team], Unionville, basketball-wise, has been good the past seven years, but previously, not a lot. So these dudes are going to be legends.

“We said, ‘Discipline creates legends.’ They became legendary because they won a district title for the first time since 1981. It’s a credit to them.”

Unionville (23-3) trailed 10-8 late in the first quarter but went on a 16-0 run to start the second.

» READ MORE: District 1 5A girls: Bishop Shanahan tops Villa Maria for first-ever district title

They held a 32-17 lead at halftime, then extended it to 39-20 after the third quarter, which was a brutal showing offensively (eight turnovers) but strong defensively. Upper Dublin was just 1 of 13 from the floor in those eight minutes, managing just three points.

“We were just playing great defensively,” Brown said. “One guy gets beat, we would rotate over, close out, he would get beat, someone would step up for a charge, it was great.”

Brown helped Unionville slam the door, scoring 14 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter. The 6-2 combo guard knocked down three triples in the final five minutes.

Longhorns senior Nick Diehl, who’s heading to Tulane next year for baseball, had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Anderson finished with 12 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Kammeier added nine points, nine rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

Unionville will play Manheim Central (19-6), the No. 8 seed out of District 3, in the first round of the state tournament. The Longhorns’ state run lasted only one game a year ago as Muhlenberg pulled off a road upset in the first round.

They have aspirations of playing deeper into March this year, though they’ll likely have to beat Imhotep Charter and Archbishop Ryan in some order to make it to Hershey.

“This is what we were talking about from the beginning of the year, from last spring. It’s a state championship, that’s what we’re going for,” Anderson said. “Districts, it’s real nice, it’s awesome, great feeling, but that’s not the goal. The goal is a state ‘chip.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.