Lackluster Leopards
Philadelphia school claims 7th title in 8 years
HERSHEY, Pa. — Shortly before his team took the court Thursday nigh, Lincoln Park coach Mike Bariski was in a hallway outside his team’s locker room when he said, “A friend of mine just called from Philadelphia and said we’re playing the Sixers tonight.”
Oh, come on. The NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers? NeumannGoretti wasn’t any better than Villanova.
Neumann-Goretti, a powerhouse from the Philadelphia Catholic League with two players ranked in the top 100 in the country, flexed its muscles Thursday night and knocked around Lincoln Park, 89-58, to win the PIAA Class 3A championship.
The Saints went marching into Giant Center in Hershey with a lofty reputation — and lived up to every bit of it in winning a seventh PIAA title in eight years.
“They’re an elite Philadelphia team,” Bariski said. “They’re an elite team anywhere — Chicago, New York, Philadelphia. That’s a great basketball team.”
At one point in the fourth quarter, Neumann-Goretti (24-7) looked like it might set a record for the biggest blowout in PIAA history. The record is 37 points in 1953, and Neumann-Goretti opened a 39-point lead with 3:49 left. But Lincoln Park (25-6), the No. 2 team from the WPIAL, shouldn’t feel bad. NeumannGoretti beat a good Mars team, 99-66, in a PIAA title game a year ago.
“It’s not just the talent they have,” Bariski said. “It’s just that they’re also so big and physical.”
The two Neumann-Goretti players ranked among the top 100 in the country are 6-foot senior point guard Quade Green and 6-8 senior forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree. Green, who has signed with Kentucky, had 22 points and 8 assists. He made 6 of 7 field goals, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. CosbyRoundtree is a Villanova recruit who had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Neumann-Goretti shot 51 percent (28 of 55) from the field and outrebounded Lincoln Park, 48-32.
“The [Green] kid is going to Kentucky for a reason. [John] Calipari doesn’t make a mistake,” Bariski said. “But it was their bigs that made the difference in this game.”
The win overshadowed another fine performance by Lincoln Park senior guard Nelly Cummings, who closed out his tremendous career with 37 points. A Bowling Green recruit, Cummings finished as the fifthleading scorer in WPIAL history with 2,411 points.
“I think Nelly wanted to prove something,” Bariski said. “I think he proved he was on the same level [as Green] at times, but Green has four Division I kids behind him to help.”
Cummings made 12 of 27 shots from the field and 7 of 14 from 3point range.
“I’m a fierce competitor. If I see a player going to Kentucky, I’m going to go at him,” Cummings said. “But we lost the game and they played better than us. So I’m not really into all that.”
Lincoln Park stayed with Neumann-Goretti for a good bit of the first quarter. Senior guard Evan Brown scored the Leopards’ first seven points and NeumannGoretti held only an 8-7 lead.
But Neumann-Goretti then started doubling Brown when he got the ball and he scored only six points the rest of the way. Neumann-Goretti opened up a 17-9 lead after the first quarter and scored the first 14 points of the second quarter, grabbed a 319 lead and breezed from there.
Neumann-Goretti also doubleteamed Cummings at times and he had only 10 points at halftime. Cummings was able to take 17 shots in the second half.
“We talked about trying to limit Cummings early in the game, where he couldn’t get going and get some confidence,” Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale said. “He’s a heck of a player. We held them down in the first half and that’s when we determined the game, pretty much.”