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Lincoln Park’s ‘big two’ share the wealth in win over North Catholic

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Saturday, January 27, 2024 | 12:27 AM

The motto on Lincoln Park’s shirts says “one more,” which coach Mike Bariski translates into “one more pass.”

That might seem like wishful thinking, since the Leopards have a couple of elite players who can dominate one on one and score without any passes at all. But that’s not so, he says.

Pitt-bound senior Brandin Cummings and star junior Meleek Thomas scored 27 points apiece Friday night, but the Lincoln Park tandem also got some others involved in a 95-79 victory over North Catholic that has the Leopards in the driver’s seat to win the section title.

“They’re actually good at finding people when they’re getting stuck,” senior forward Dontay Green said. “I know their mentality is to score every time, but eventually, yeah, they definitely make some great passes.”

What ultimately let Lincoln Park pull away was that four scorers reached double figures. Green and Mikey Crawford had 15 points each, and Rhaki Lum nearly joined them with nine.

This was the third time Lincoln Park has scored 95 points or more in a game.

“Sometimes we get overconfident in our individuality,” Bariski said. “But then I have to remind them about our favorite saying – it’s on our shirts – ‘one more.’ Pass the ball one more time and it’s an open layup or wide-open shot.

“And it all starts with the ‘big two.’ Even though they’re out there doing their stuff, get that double team, make that pass. That makes us a really, really good team, when we’re unselfish.”

The win keeps Lincoln Park (14-3, 8-0) alone atop the standings with four games left in Section 2-4A. North Catholic (10-6, 6-2) remains alone in second place.

These teams played Dec. 27 at PPG Paints Arena and Lincoln Park won, 72-58. That one was played largely in front of empty seats, but this time there was a nearly packed house at North Catholic.

Max Hurray led the Trojans with 24 points, Jude Rottmann had 14 and Brady Koziara added 11. They had the home crowd buzzing when they erased an early deficit and led by one point after the first quarter.

Some North Catholic turnovers and missed shots, coupled with the secondary scoring provided by Green and Crawford, helped Lincoln Park build a 10-point lead by halftime.

Cummings and Thomas are both 6-foot-4 and give Lincoln Park arguably the two best scorers in the WPIAL. They combined for 14 points in the first quarter, but took a backseat to their teammates in the second.

“We like to get each other going before we start getting ourselves going,” Cummings said. “That just means making sure everybody is in their rhythm.”

The Leopards scored 102 points in a win last week over Blackhawk and had 97 against Beaver in early December.

Thomas and Cummings combined for 35 points in the second half Friday with 20 coming in the fourth quarter. Both had dunks after halftime, but their passing skills can make defenses pay for trapping them.

“They are so big and have such great vision that they see over top of pressure, they see over top of traps,” North Catholic coach Jim Rocco said. “They find open guys because of their IQ for the game.”

Green and Crawford combined to score 16 of Lincoln Park’s 20 points in the quarter. Green had nine in a row in one stretch to flip a North Catholic’s three-point lead into a 33-27 advantage for the Leopards.

Consecutive layups by Crawford later in the quarter sparked an 8-0 run just before halftime, giving Lincoln Park a 42-32 lead at the break.

“They trust everybody, but it takes some time to sink all the way,” Bariski said. “You can’t blame them. They think they have to carry us every night, and they do. But they have to let other guys help.”

In the second half, North Catholic tried to keep pace with 3-pointers and made seven, but couldn’t close the gap.

Lincoln Park’s lead reached 16 points in the middle of the third when Cummings finished a three-point play and Thomas followed with a steal and layup. The Leopards led 55-39.

A 3-pointer by Rottmann cut North Catholic’s deficit to eight points early in the fourth quarter, but the Trojans could get no closer.

“You’re playing an epic team,” Rocco said. “You have to be so precise and so perfect, and we weren’t. We played super hard. We cared a great deal. But you’ve just got to be perfect.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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