Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings, Meleek Thomas named 2024 TribLive HSSN Boys Basketball Players of the Year
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Monday, April 1, 2024 | 5:21 PM
Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings and Meleek Thomas celebrate with their gold medals after defeating Archbishop Carroll in the the PIAA Class 4A state championship game on Thursday, Mar. 21, 2024, at Giant Center in Hershey.
Lincoln Park’s Meleek Thomas shoots a 3-pointer over Archbishop Carroll’s Munir Greig during the the PIAA Class 4A state championship game on Thursday, Mar. 21, 2024, at Giant Center in Hershey.
Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings hugs Meleek Thomas after they exited the game during the Leopards’ PIAA Class 4A state playoff game against Montour on Friday, Mar. 8, 2024, in Midland.
Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings scores against Hampton’s Peter Kramer during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on Thurday, Feb. 29, 2024, at Pitt.
Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings celebrates with Meleek Thomas as time expires in the WPIAL Class 4A championship game against Hampton on Thurday, Feb. 29, 2024, at Pitt.
Brandin Cummings and Meleek Thomas form a dynamic duo for Lincoln Park’s boys basketball team, but they aren’t quite Batman and Robin.
“We’re both Batman,” Cummings said. “I don’t think there’s one over the other. We both do a lot of things really well.”
That skill set includes winning championships. The duo combined this winter to win WPIAL and PIAA Class 4A titles for the second year in a row.
Both are listed as 6-foot-4 guards. Cummings averaged 24.6 points, 2.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game while making a team-high 85 3-pointers. Thomas averaged a double-double with 23.5 points and 10.8 rebounds while adding 5.8 assists and 3.3 steals per game. They often took turns leading the Leopards, with Thomas posting a double-double in the WPIAL finals and Cummings scoring a game-high 37 points in the state championship game.
They now share another similarity as the 2024 TribLive HSSN Boys Co-Players of the Year.
Cummings, a senior committed to Pitt, will graduate with 2,224 career points. Thomas, a junior considered a top five recruit nationally in the 2025 class, has 1,750 points.
They led Lincoln Park to a 58-4 record in the past two seasons combined.
“We won a lot of games together, a lot of championships,” Cummings said. “But aside from basketball, we spend a lot of time together. Over the however many years we’ve known each other, we’ve gotten closer over the years.”
Cummings talks with TribLive HSSN’s Don Rebel about winning championships, his legacy in the WPIAL, the dynamic duo’s relationship and more.
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.
Tags: Lincoln Park
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