Brandin Cummings’ 37 points leads Lincoln Park over Archbishop Carroll for second straight PIAA 4A state title
The Patriots’ rotation of freshmen and sophomores was no match for the Leopards, but they’re hoping “this journey gives us a better chance of everybody coming back” next season.
Archbishop Carroll’s run came to an end Thursday in the PIAA Class 4A title game when the young Patriots lost to defending champion Lincoln Park, 80-50, at Hershey’s Giant Center.
The Leopards were led by 37 points from Pitt recruit Brandin Cummings and 16 points and 14 rebounds from five-star junior recruit Meleek Thomas.
It was an accomplishment for Archbishop Carroll to even be playing for a state championship so early in the young Patriots’ careers.
The rotation of freshmen and sophomores won five games in a row after a Catholic League loss to Neumann Goretti to advance to the title game for the first time since 2015.
“Nobody expected us to be here,” said Carroll sophomore guard and captain Ian Williams, who had 12 points, four rebounds, and three assists. “Just being able to experience what it feels like. We’ll take the butt-whooping and we’ll be back next year.”
» READ MORE: Archbishop Carroll’s Munir Greig, Ian Williams lead young squad to state title appearance
The season was a success for head coach Francis Bowe’s Patriots (21-9) with a state championship appearance and the hope that the entire team can build on this run.
The loss also forces the question of whether the Patriots will be able to keep the young and talented team together to work their way back to the title game, no easy task in a basketball landscape saturated with transfers.
The best-case scenario for Carroll is having Williams and fellow sophomores Luca Foster, Nasir Ralls, Drew Corrao, and Nate Rusike back for the next two seasons and freshmen Darrell Davis and Munir Greig back for three.
“I think this journey gives us a better chance of everybody coming back,” Bowe said. “We live in a world of transfer portals from college to high school to prep programs. What will convince the team to want to come back to school and build a community? It’s games like this, events like this, and losses like this.
“That’s part of the maturation and education these kids received. Of course I wanted a victory, but I couldn’t be any prouder or happy for these guys because we did a lot this year.”
The WPIAL champion Leopards (28-3) were on another level Thursday in winning back-to-back state titles and their fourth overall.
“We never really looked at it as youth vs. people that are older than us,” Williams said. “We still believe that we are good basketball players. I just feel like they had a better night than us. They didn’t really miss a shot in the first half, which we can’t control. It’s just about keeping our mental together and realizing it’s not going to go our way in every game. Tonight wasn’t our night.”
The Leopards took a 51-22 lead into halftime behind 21-of-30 shooting while holding the Patriots to 8-of-29.
Cummings scored 14 of the Leopards’ 16 points in the final quarter, including four threes. Overall, the senior shot 14-of-18 from the field and 7-of-8 from deep.
“Everything you hear about him is true,” Bowe said of Cummings. “They shot 21-for-30 in the first half and maybe even better in the second half. Maybe our kids will be playing like that when they’re seniors.”
This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.