Lincoln Park looking like team to beat again
The 2018-19 season saw Lincoln Park further establish itself as one of the WPIAL’s premier basketball programs, claiming a section crown, WPIAL title and PIAA championship all in the same year.
Despite losing 1,500point scorer Keeno Holmes and ultra-reliable sixth man Casey Oliver to graduation, the Leopards have picked up right where they left off last year. Lincoln Park sports a 13-2 overall record and has maintained the No. 1 spot in the PostGazette’s Class 3A rankings since the beginning of the season.
More importantly, the Leopards are 8-0 in section play — a return to form for a program that won 83 section games in a row before a 77-74 defeat against Aliquippa last Jan. 22.
It has been more than a year since that fateful winter night in Midland when Lincoln Park surrendered a 17-point lead on its home court against the rival Quips. Despite all his team has accomplished since then, Leopards coach Mike Bariski can’t help but think about what could have been.
“I think about that [loss] before every game,” Bariski said. “That loss — I could tell you about the wins if I thought about it — I could tell you everything about that loss. That motivates me and we talk about it a lot.”
Lincoln Park’s section winning streak was the second longest in WPIAL history, trailing only Blackhawk’s remarkable 111-game streak from 199099. And for as much as Bariski would have loved to etch his team’s name into the history books by breaking the Cougars’ record, he realizes now that the crushing loss helped set the wheels in motion for the Leopards’ magical postseason run.
After defeating North Catholic, 62-50, in last year’s WPIAL championship game, Lincoln Park exacted its revenge with a 71-69 win against Aliquippa in the second round of the PIAA playoffs. A pair of nine-point wins led the Leopards to the PIAA championship game against Trinity (Camp Hill), where they built a 16point lead with less than three minutes to play before withstanding a furious comeback attempt to hold on for a 73-72 victory.
“I have to concentrate on how we lost that game. I don’t want to concentrate on how Aliquippa beat us — I always think about how we lost,” Bariski said. “I look at it as, ‘How did we lose?’ rather than how they won.
“I really dissected it to see how we lost that game, and that’s been kind of our coaching plan this year.”
With talented, experienced players such as Isaiah Smith, Andre Wilder and Tanner Mathos coming back, nobody in their right mind would have expected Lincoln Park to fall off this year, even without Holmes and Oliver.
Still, it was fair to wonder if the team had what it takes to put together another undefeated season in section play — let alone make a run at another WPIAL and PIAA title.
The Leopards didn’t waste any time silencing the doubters, knocking off Philadelphia powerhouse Hickory, 76-63, in just their second game of the season on Dec. 7. They lost to The Villages Charter, Fla., in their first game of the Florida Elks-Umatilla Tournament Dec. 13, but bounced back the next day with a 7770 win against Inspire Academy Prep, Fla.
“That really opened the guys’ eyes, because Villages is probably unmatched by any teams up here. They were that good,” Bariski said. “They had size, they had a D-I guard, D-I forward — you’re not going to see a lot of teams with that strength up and down like they had.”
Lincoln Park’s only other loss came against WPIAL Class 4A No. 3 Highlands as part of the C.J. Betters Tournament on Dec. 28. The day before, the Leopards handily defeated WPIAL Class 6A No. 2 Butler, albeit without star point guard Ethan Morton.
Remarkably, Lincoln Park is doing it all this season without a single player averaging more than 15 points per game.
The Leopards’ schedule doesn’t get any easier as the stretch run commences, either. Along with a marquee matchup against four-time defending PIAA Class 6A champion Kennedy Catholic Jan. 26 at the PBC Hall of Fame Classic at Montour, Lincoln Park will host three-time defending WPIAL Class 4A champion New Castle in its regularseason finale Feb. 9.
“If you look at our schedule throughout the years, we have one of the toughest schedules around,” Bariski said. “We try to play the toughest we can, because some losses are really good losses. They teach you a lot about your team and they show your guys that they’re not as good as they think.”
With the way the Leopards are playing, anything less than a fifth consecutive trip to Petersen Events Center would seem like a massive disappointment at this point. And with a third consecutive WPIAL title and back-to-back PIAA titles both very much in reach, Lincoln Park has a chance to separate itself from the pack when basketball fans debate which school has the best program in the area.
“It’s not a mistake that we’re good — it’s through hard work,” Bariski said. “We start our stuff in June for working on the next year. Our guys are at work in June to get ready to defend whatever we won or to get back to where we need to be.
“We work very hard at becoming an elite program, and we think we deserve to be at least in the conversation.”