No. 1 Lincoln Park scores first 14 points in victory over Beaver Falls

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, February 21, 2019 | 11:39 PM

Lincoln Park’s Keeno Holmes made a 3-pointer on the opening possession and Isaiah Smith added another seconds later as the Leopards scored the first 14 points in Thursday night’s 82-54 victory over Beaver Falls in a WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinal at New Castle.

Holmes scored a game-high 30 points for top-seeded Lincoln Park (20-4) which faces fourth-seeded Seton LaSalle in a semifinal Monday.

“We came out extremely hot,” Lincoln Park coach Mike Bariski said, “but unfortunately they thought that’s how it was going to go the rest of the game. Like kids do, when you’re up 14, you start to take it for granted.”

Beaver Falls rallied to within six points in the second quarter before Lincoln Park pulled away. Smith added 13 points and Andre Wilder had 12 for the Leopards, who led 45-29 at half.

“We defended well even though we were in foul trouble, and that’s what leads to our offense,” Bariski said. “I called some sets, but most of it was off our defense. We tried to speed them up.”

Gage McKelvey led Beaver Falls (10-14) with 16 points, including nine in the first quarter. Jalen Vaughn added 14 points and Razir Jones had 11.

This was the third matchup this season between the section rivals. Lincoln Park won all three.

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: Beaver Falls, Lincoln Park