HERSHEY — After the first quarter Thursday night, the PIAA’s DJ queued up some Sia for the fans in attendance at the Giant Center. The pop star and wig aficionado wasn’t singing about Lincoln Park’s offense. But she may as well have been.
The Leopards were, as the Australian intoned, unstoppable. A 15-for-19 start from the field and 37 points in a signature performance by Brandin Cummings helped the charter school from Midland claim an 80-50 decision over Archbishop Carroll in the PIAA Class 4A final.
It’s the 19th straight win and fourth state title for Lincoln Park, one shy of the school whose building they inherited, Midland High. It won this game over Neumann-Goretti, 62-58, last year. All the energy that Carroll, the seventh-place team in the Catholic League and third seed out of District 12, expended to make this run to Hershey was used Thursday not to get blown out.
Lincoln Park just took what it wanted offensively early. It went on a 16-0 run in the first quarter and led 51-22 at halftime on 21-for-30 shooting. Only some prudent clock killing by a team that played like it’s been to this stage before kept the score reasonable.
“Our kids were like, ‘Coach, they’re not missing,’” Carroll coach Francis Bowe said. “And I was like, ‘they’re going to miss. They’re going to miss.’ … They were fantastic. They played like they’ve been here before, and our guys saw it for the first time. Hats off to them.”
Cummings scored 37 points on 14-for-18 shooting. He made his first seven 3-pointers before a late heat check. Junior five-star Maleek Thomas was just about as good, with 16 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and three steals. Mikey Crawford added 15 points. Lincoln Park (27-3) became the 37th team to hit 80 points in a PIAA boys championship game.
Thomas and Cummings combined to shoot 10-for-12 in the first quarter, Carroll positively blitzed out of the gates.
“It’s hard for us because we’re young and stuff,” Carroll guard Nasir Rawls said. “We’ve just got to fight through it. They’re going to hit shots. And today was Cummings’ day. Not much we could really do.”
Cummings put on a show in the fourth, with four 3-pointers. His last one was from 30 feet. The one before that came with the Pitt signee having turned to look at his bench before it went in. The Leopards finished 30-for-45 from the field and 10-for-16 from 3-point range, just an electric offensive team.
Carroll arrived at the Giant Center in a not unfamiliar position, as the marked underdog. Lincoln Park had won 18 straight games and had only lost to one Pennsylvania school this year, Neumann-Goretti, which beat Carroll twice. Carroll has been pulling what the seeds would indicate are upsets for weeks now.
They’ve done it with a six-man rotation from a nine-man roster, all sophomores and freshmen. They didn’t necessarily play with the naivety of youth Thursday beyond being overwhelmed by Lincoln Park’s veteran savvy. In fact, Bowe was impressed by the lack of fear that his guys showed early, whether it was Rawls getting in the face of Cummings or freshman Munir Greig being unafraid to stick Thomas.
“It’s the fearlessness but it’s also handling some emotions here, too,” Bowe said. “For freshmen and sophomores to come out there, get in a stance, not be afraid to defend, what else can you ask for?”
“I told my teammates, we’re just a good as them; they’re just a little older,” Rawls said. “We’ve got the same offense that they do. They’re just a little older.”
Greig, who led Carroll in the semifinal, had just four points in the first half. He finished with 10. Luca Foster led the way with 12 points and six rebounds. Darrell Davis shot 2-for-11 from the field, including 0-for-6 in the first half. He ended up with just four points. Ian Williams had 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The state final is the fourth in program history. Carroll beat District 7’s Greensburg Salem in the Class AAA final in 2009, its first year in the PIAA. It has lost its last three, including in 2013 and 2015 AAA finals to Philadelphia opposition, in Imhotep Charter and Neumann-Goretti, respectively.
Carroll ended a three-year drought for boys teams reaching Hershey, the last being Bonner & Prendergast in 2019 (the 2020 state finals were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.) The last Delco state title was Chester in 2012.
The challenge now for Carroll is one Bowe didn’t shy away from after the game. He’s got a starting five’s worth of kids with Division I interest, but it’s about making sure they stay. Throughout this states run, he’s gotten the most from the talent on hand, and he has the kind of players – particularly two dynamic, ball-sharing guards in Williams and Davis – that make the players around them better.
Bowe knows he has to make the case each year that Carroll is the best place for them to reach their basketball aspirations. And going on a run like this can galvanize a group to want to stay together and seek something greater than themselves.
“We have now entered the high school world of the transfer portal just like the college level. In every way – public school, private school, prep school, all of them,” Bowe said. “Sometimes you need to have some sort of journey to hopefully convince your kids to come back or stay or where is the golden nugget of staying here. I heard those boys, even in the timeouts, ‘we’re coming back here.’ I said, well prove it by playing hard to the end. And they did.”
“First of many,” Rawls said. “We’ll be back next year. Just coming in, knowing whoever comes here next year is going to face us.”
