Reaching historical heights
Cummings had a memorable championship game, while Sledge becomes first player from WPIAL to start, win three state title games
HERSHEY, Pa. — Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings and Imani Christian’s RJ Sledge were parts of teams that had significant achievements at the PIAA basketball championships this year. Lincoln Park and Imani Christian became the ninth and 10th teams ever from the WPIAL to win back-to-back state titles.
But Cummings and Sledge also had historical individual achievements in the title games at Giant Center in Hershey on Thursday.
Cummings’ performance in the Class 4A final was thought to be among the best by a WPIAL player ever in a championship. In fact, it was the No. 1 scoring performance ever by a WPIAL player in a title game.
Cummings, a 6-foot-4 senior guard headed to Pitt, scored 37 points, making 14 of 18 shots from the field, including 7 of 8 from 3-point range. Cummings also passed five players on the WPIAL all-time scoring list and finished his career in 21st place with 2,224 points.
Cummings, however, wasn’t close to the record for most points in a state final. Elk Lake’s Bob Stevenson scored 55 in 1977 and Carlisle’s Billy Owens 53 in 1988.
One day later, Aliquippa sophomore Josh Pratt came close to tying Cummings’ mark when he scored 36 against Holy Cross in the Class 2A championship.
Meanwhile, research shows Sledge became the first player ever from the WPIAL to start and win three state championship games. Sledge is a junior who was a starting guard for Imani Christian in its victory against Berlin Brothersvalley in the Class 1A championship. Sledge had 22 points and eight steals in Imani Christian’s win.
Sledge also started on Imani Christian’s team last year that won the PIAA title with another victory against Berlin Brothersvalley. Sledge scored eight points in that game. But Sledge also started for Bishop Canevin’s team that won the Class 1A title in 2022 against St. John Neuman. Sledge scored nine points in that game and transferred to Imani for his sophomore year. No records exist on how many players in Pennsylvania history started four state championship games. Only a few teams have played in four consecutive championships. But there is one player known to start four times. That was the legendary Owens from 1985-88. And Carlisle won the championship all four of those seasons.
Will Thomas return?
Lincoln Park star guard Meleek Thomas is ranked among the top 10 juniors in the country by scouting services. Although he has one more year left at Lincoln Park, the question is: Will Thomas be back or will he possibly go to a prep school or a “basketball school,” like Montverde Academy (Fla.) for his final school year?
Thomas has considered leaving Lincoln Park in the past, but coach Mike Bariski said after the state championship game that Thomas is staying for his senior year. Bariski has put Lincoln Park in a couple “national type” events for next season, mainly because of Thomas.
Thomas has scholarship offers from schools across the country and last year named a top 12 list of schools – Pitt, Kentucky, Auburn, Indiana, Kansas, Duke, Kansas State, Miami, Michigan, Tennessee, Connecticut and Villanova.
“What does he need? He has [scholarship] offers from everywhere,” Bariski said. “I think he pretty much has his eye on where he’s going to go [to college], so what else is he going to get?”
Thomas has 1,750 career points after his junior season.
“If he stays here, he’ll be a legend,” Bariski said. “Nobody remembers [former Lincoln Park star] Maverick Rowan. Nobody. That’s because he left after two years and went to another school. He was a great player. If he would’ve stayed four years, he would’ve been one of the top five scorers in the state, or the WPIAL at least.
Meleek wants to be remembered as that guy.”
But when Thomas was asked if he would return to Lincoln Park for his junior year, he smiled and said, “Everybody keeps asking me that. Let’s just say I don’t even like answering that.”
But when asked the question again, Thomas said, “Coach’s word sticks. I don’t want to say yes or no, but whatever coach says, it’s most likely that.”
Will Nick be back?
Aliquippa coach Nick Lackovich won his second state title this season. He also has won four WPIAL championships. But Lackovich said after the Quips beat Holy Cross for the PIAA Class 2A championship that he is thinking about not returning as coach.
Lackovich said this championship felt better than all of the rest because he and his team had to deal with a lot of “outside interference.” Lackovich finished off his fourth season of his second stint as the Quips’ coach.
“Going out on top is pretty appealing,” Lackovich said. “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. I might just want to get away and get back to a normal life without anyone calling me about playing time.”
The right decision
Greg Huston resigned as Beaver’s girls coach after last season. Then the head coach’s job at Blackhawk opened shortly after. Huston had a daughter, Grace, who was a freshman on Blackhawk’s team last season, and Huston was urged to try for the Blackhawk job after highly successful coach Steve Lodovico stepped down.
Huston didn’t know if he wanted to coach again, but ended up going for the Blackhawk job — and got it. Then Blackhawk got a state title with a win against Scranton Prep in the Class 4A title.
“I was following in the footsteps of some people who have done great things. I definitely felt pressure, but I’m glad I did it,” Huston said. “[Blackhawk assistant] R.J. Brown said to me last spring that I better do this. Then a lot of people said you’re going to regret it if you don’t work with your daughter, and they were exactly right.”
Biggest blowouts
Imani Christian and Lincoln Park won their state championships in unusually dominant fashion.
Lincoln Park’s 80-50 win against Archbishop Carroll was the second-most lopsided championship win ever for a WPIAL team. The 30-point margin is exceeded only by Ambridge’s 93-62 win against Chester in the 1967 Class 3A final. That Ambridge team is considered by some as the best in WPIAL history. It had three future major-college players— Dick DeVenzio (Duke), Dennis Wuycik (North Carolina) and Frank Kaufman (Purdue).
Imani Christian’s 79-52 victory against Berlin Brothersvalley is the fourth-most lopsided state championship win by a WPIAL team. It is just behind Midland’s 90-61 win against SteeltonHighspire in the 1965 title game in Class 3A, which was the largest classification at the time. That Midland team also is considered one of the WPIAL’s best of all time and had two legendary players in Norm Van Lier and Simmie Hill.
Championship attendance
The 12 boys and girls championships at Giant Center in Hershey were played in three days, with four games played each day. Attendance for the games was 19,167.
That’s not quite as good as some recent years in Hershey, but it’s also better than some years. For example, the 2022 games drew only 16,946, 17,091 in 2016 and 17,930 in 2015.
But 20,205 attended in 2023 and 26,061 in 2017. It’s nothing like the olden days of the finals in Hershey. From 2004-06, attendance was between 33,000 and 34,800.