Story by Ryan Gerazounis, Beaver County Radio

(Hershey, PA): 

The plot was simple for the Lincoln Park boys basketball team on Thursday night. Win and they will be back to back PIAA 4A State Champions. In their way representing the eastern side of the state, the Archbishop Carroll Patriots.

From the onset the Archbishop Carroll basketball team which starts all freshmen and sophomores looked to be overwhelmed by Lincoln Park. In the first quarter Brandin Cummings and Meleek Thomas got things started by scoring a combined twenty of the Leopards 25 points. Lincoln Park Park held a comfortable 25-10 lead after one. The second quarter mirrored the first with more dominating play by the Leopards. This time Mikey Crawford contributed eight points to help Lincoln Park take a twenty-nine point 51-22 lead into the half.

The second half proved to be more competitive on the Patriots behalf. Holding Cummings and company to only thirteen points while managing to score 12. Trailed 64-34 after the third quarter. However a statement making performance by Brandin Cummings in the fourth quarter left no doubt which team was going to walk away victorious. Cummings hit four of his seven tree pointers in the quarter along with another bucket to score fourteen of Lincoln Park’s final sixteen. The Lincoln Park Leopards would shut the door on the Archbishop Carroll Patriots and successfully defend their PIAA State Gold by a final score of 80-50.

The Leopards finish their 2023-24 campaign by going 28-3 overall. Defending their PIAA 4A title by going back to back.

Brandin Cummings lead all scorers with 37 points. Followed by teammates Meleek Thomas with 16 and Mikey Crawford with 15. Leading the way for Archbishop Carroll was Ian Williams with 12 points.