Lincoln Park played a game locally for the first time Wednesday since dropping a pair of games to close out a tournament in Oregon last week.
One of its stars, Brandin Cummings, said he talked to his team about producing a statement win in the game, this one against a much more familiar opponent.
And that’s exactly what the Leopards did.
With his future college coach (Pitt’s Jeff Capel) sitting courtside, Cummings scored a game-high 23 points to lead Lincoln Park to a 72-58 win against section rival North Catholic in the final game of the four-game Pittsburgh Holiday Hoops Classic at PPG Paints Arena.
Lincoln Park (6-2), which beat North Catholic to win last season’s WPIAL Class 4A title, improved to 2-0 in Section 2, while North Catholic (4-3) fell to 1-1. The Leopards were coming off consecutive losses to St. Joseph, Calif., and Tualatin, Ore., both considered among the top teams in their respective states.
“Lincoln Park, we don’t lose back-to-back games. That’s not in our culture,” Cummings said. “We wanted to come back and make a statement, and I feel like we did that tonight.”
Cummings scored 16 of his points over the first two quarters when Lincoln Park opened up a 45-24 halftime lead. That lead grew to 65-39 through three quarters before starters were pulled throughout the final quarter.
Meleek Thomas chipped in 15 points and Rhaki Lum 12 for Lincoln Park, which played a game locally for the first time in more than three weeks.
Max Hurray led North Catholic with 17 points, and Jude Rottmann added 15, all on his five 3-pointers.
“I just feel like we played harder,” Cummings said. “We actually had something to play for other than it being a rivalry game. But we played even harder just because of the fact that we just lost two games.”
Golle beats buzzer to give Allderdice win
The final 1.2 seconds of the Allderdice-Fox Chapel game went as quickly as one would expect.
But for Allderdice’s Logan Golle, that was anything but the case as he unleashed a shot just before the buzzer sounded.
“It was like time slowed down,” Golle recalled. “I saw it hit the backboard first. It bounced a couple times. As soon as it went in, I started the celebration, and I knew my teammates were going to support me. You saw them tackle me on the court. It was a great feeling.”
Golle’s 3-pointer gave two-time defending City League champion Allderdice (5-1) a dramatic 51-48 win against Fox Chapel (4-5).
Golle finished with a game-high 17 points for Allderdice, which trailed Fox Chapel, 41-35, after three quarters. The Dragons, though, outscored Fox Chapel, 16-7, in the fourth quarter, limiting the Foxes to only one field goal. Ma’Ayan Kohai’s bucket pulled the Dragons even at 48-48 with 57 seconds remaining. Kohai finished with 12 points.
Asher White led Fox Chapel with 15 points and Will Siegel added 11.
Lincoln Park girls move to 8-0
Maddie Syka scored 22 points and J’La Kizart had 20 to help Lincoln Park improve to 8-0 after a 68-45 win against West Allegheny (4-5) in what was the Class 5A Section 4 opener for both teams.
Lincoln Park, which averages a WPIAL-best 70 points per game, struggled offensively early on as the Leopards fell behind West Allegheny, 11-10, after one quarter. But that offense came alive in the second quarter, enabling the Leopards to score 17, 16 and 25 points over the final three quarters.
Lincoln Park coach Ryan Kacsur said he was most impressed with his team’s resilience Wednesday.
“Listen, we didn’t come out and start the way we’ve been playing all season long. I was worried about that. The stage got to us a little bit, the lights, the excitement of that,” said Kacsur, whose team started 9-0 a season ago.
West Allegheny was led by freshman Emma Ruperto’s 22 points.
McKeesport tops West Mifflin
In a matchup of Mon Valley schools, McKeesport (3-3) used the inside-outside game of Lamont Perkins and Keith Spell to defeat West Mifflin (6-3), 66-55, in the opening game of the day.
Perkins, a sophomore guard, scored a game-high 21 points and Spell, a 6-foot-2, 265-pound senior forward, added 14, eight of which coming in McKeesport’s 22-point first quarter.
“They couldn’t match up with us at the start down low so we took advantage of it,” said Spell, who committed to play football at California (Pa.) on Christmas Day.
West Mifflin, which saw its five-game win streak snapped, trailed McKeesport, 47-46, after three quarters before being outscored by the Tigers, 19-9, in the fourth. Braeden Walker led West Mifflin with 21 points.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.