Bolstered by 5 WPIAL championship teams, Quaker Valley captures Class 4A Trib Cup
Mike Mastroianni was in a no lose situation in this year’s race for the Trib HSSN Cup in Class 4A. He is the athletic director and boys basketball coach at Quaker Valley while he lives in the Montour school district. Those two schools finished first and second, with Mastroianni’s Quakers...
Quaker Valley teammates, coach Mike Mastroianni earn all-state honors in Class 4A
Adou Thiero and Markus Frank formed a dynamic duo for Quaker Valley, which celebrated the most successful boys basketball season in school history this winter. The two Quakers and their coach added another reason to celebrate Friday. Thiero and Frank each earned first-team all-state honors in a statewide vote of...
2022 TribLive HSSN Boys Basketball All-Stars | Terrific 10
This was a history-making year for WPIAL boys basketball with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart leading the way. The record-setting Chargers were one of three teams that won a WPIAL title with an undefeated record, joining Quaker Valley and Laurel Highlands. All three championships squads are represented here among...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports for March 11, 2022: Shenango-Seton LaSalle to clash on court
Nine months ago, the two schools met for WPIAL gold. Now Shenango battles Seton LaSalle with a spot in the PIAA girls basketball quarterfinals at stake. The last time these schools collided in a postseason clash, Shenango stunned top seed and defending champion Seton LaSalle, 2-1, in the 2021 WPIAL...
Quaker Valley’s Adou Thiero scores 25 in semifinal win despite fractured thumb
Adou Thiero wore tape on the knee he injured last winter and a wrap on the thumb he fractured earlier this week. His junior season was cut short by one injury, costing his team a chance at a WPIAL title, so the Quaker Valley star was determined that this season...
Confident and now healthy, star freshman Meleek Thomas leads Lincoln Park past North Catholic
Sharing the court with a couple of scorers bound for Division I colleges might make some freshmen timid. Not Lincoln Park’s Meleek Thomas, who waved for the basketball when the Leopards needed a fourth-quarter boost Wednesday night. And without hesitation, they passed it to him. Thomas missed much of this...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports for Feb. 23, 2022: Basketball quarterfinals begin
One round is in the books, now it’s time to move on to Round 2 on the Path to the Pete. The first of three straight basketball quarterfinals nights shines a spotlight on boys 4A, boys A, girls 6A and girls 3A. In boys 4A, they have met several times,...
Trib HSSN Boys Basketball Player of the Week for Feb. 21, 2022
Lincoln Park sophomore Brandin Cummings has always been close with his older brother Nelly, who starred with the Leopards and graduated in 2017 before playing his college ball at Bowling Green and Colgate. Both won WPIAL championships as a freshman at Lincoln Park. That was Nelly’s only district title. Brandin...
Lincoln Park serves notice to WPIAL Class 4A bracket with rout of Yough
Defending champion Lincoln Park is getting healthy, and that is bad news for the WPIAL Class 4A bracket. With most of its rotation back together after an assortment of injuries throughout the season, the fifth-seeded Leopards, the highest-scoring team in the classification, put on an offensive show in the first...
Westmoreland WPIAL basketball playoff capsule for Feb. 18, 2022
Today’s game Boys Class 4A First round 12-Yough (13-9) at 5-Lincoln Park (15-6) 7 p.m. Friday Winner plays: Winner of 13-Central Valley (9-8)/4-North Catholic (17-3) Wednesday in quarterfinals Lay-up lines: Yough finished fourth in Section 3 behind third-seeded Belle Vernon, Uniontown and Elizabeth Forward. The Cougars have five straight wins...
Breaking down the 2022 WPIAL boys basketball playoff brackets
Class 6A Favorite: North Hills went undefeated and ran away with the Section 1 title, putting the Indians in position to maybe win their first WPIAL title. They’re led by a trio of double-digit scorers, including 6-foot-7 sophomore Royce Parham (20.9 ppg) and 6-3 senior guards Alex Smith (18.6) and...
Markus Frank’s knack around basket leads unbeaten Quaker Valley past Lincoln Park
Quaker Valley’s Markus Frank has a knack for scoring around the rim from angles that seem almost impossible, yet he makes them with ease. And he makes them in a hurry. “At least once a practice, he’ll make a shot and we’ll all find ourselves looking at each other and...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports on Jan. 21, 2022: Heavyweight rematch in 4A basketball
What better way to begin the second half of section play in WPIAL boys basketball than with two of the top three teams in Class 4A clashing for a second time this season? The showdown for first place in Section 2-4A takes place in Midland as No. 3 Lincoln Park...
LA Pratt’s game-winner lifts Lincoln Park to 2-point win over Montour
Lincoln Park saw a 15-point lead vanish Friday night, but that was all forgotten once senior LA Pratt made a clutch runner with five seconds left to lift the Leopards to a 51-49 victory over Montour in a battle of ranked teams. The Duquesne recruit was having a quiet night...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports on Dec. 23, 2021: Big-time battle between Lincoln Park, Quaker Valley
Even though it’s only two days until the holiday weekend, there are two more big section basketball games to be played before the first gifts are unwrapped. On the boys side, the lone Thursday section game is a showdown in Section 2-4A as No. 1 Lincoln Park visits No. 2...
Trib HSSN 2021-22 WPIAL Class 4A boys basketball preseason breakdown
Class 4A is where the stars play in WPIAL boys basketball. Starting with defending champion Lincoln Park, most of the top teams in the class have at least one Division I prospect on the roster. By March, it might come down to which collection of talent comes together best as...
Lincoln Park basketball standout LA Pratt commits to Duquesne
Lincoln Park basketball standout LA Pratt will play his college ball close to home. The 6-foot-5 point guard announced his verbal commitment to Duquesne via his social media accounts Tuesday afternoon. Pratt averaged 13 points per game for Lincoln Park last season, helping the Leopards to a 19-6 record, a...
4 WPIAL boys basketball players earn all-state honors in Class 4A
Lincoln Park senior Dakari Bradford and North Catholic senior Andrew Ammerman, whose teams clashed last month in the WPIAL finals, were among four WPIAL boys basketball players earning all-state honors Thursday in Class 4A. Bradford, Ammerman and Quaker Valley junior Adou Theiro all were named the the second team on...
Trib HSSN Boys Basketball Player of the Week for March 22, 2021: Lincoln Park’s Brandin Cummings
Nelly Cummings had a great career at Lincoln Park. The 2017 graduate averaged 22 points and 6 assists per game for his career, averaging 30 points per game his senior year. He was named all-state three times. He just ended his junior season at Colgate in the NCAA tournament. Those...
Foul trouble dooms Lincoln Park in PIAA semifinal loss to Hickory
Twenty-eight times Lincoln Park was whistled for a foul Monday night, yet it wasn’t so much how they fouled but rather who. Hickory senior Peyton Mele went 12 for 13 from the line in the second half and scored a game-high 38 points as the District 10 champion defeated host...
3 WPIAL champions to compete in 2021 PIAA boys basketball semifinals
The WPIAL boys basketball champions split six games in the PIAA quarterfinals in an emotional weekend of state basketball playoffs. Upper St. Clair won a game for the ages with just six players while Lincoln Park and OLSH rolled to lopsided wins. Meanwhile, it was time to check into the...
Lincoln Park blows out Clearfield; advances to PIAA semifinals for 2nd time in 3 years
Lincoln Park is all about “One More.” The Leopards want to make one more pass, one more rotation, one more effort, and, most importantly, one more win. The motto is painted above their locker-room door and as each player gets set to walk up the stairs and take the court...
Winning basketball titles runs in Lincoln Park freshman Brandin Cummings’ family
Comparisons to older brother Nelly are harder to shake than any lockdown defender, and Lincoln Park freshman Brandin Cummings just added another item in common. “Different personality. Different length. Different kind of player,” coach Mike Bariski said. “But here’s the similarity: Both were really good as freshmen.” And both won...
Matchups set for PIAA boys basketball quarterfinals
The few games that made up the first round of the 2021 PIAA boys basketball playoffs are complete, putting teams where they were last year when the state postseason was first suspended, then later canceled because of the global pandemic. So the district champion-only shorter version of the PIAA playoffs...
Lincoln Park tops North Catholic, avenges last season’s WPIAL championship loss
Dakari Bradford never forgot the emotions he saw in Lincoln Park’s locker room last winter, especially the sadness from the seniors playing their final WPIAL championship. “It was a heart-breaker,” he said. To keep that from happening again, the senior scored nine of his 19 points in the fourth quarter...
