A foul feeling
AMBRIDGE — Things were looking pretty good for the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic boys basketball team four minutes into the second half.
The Trojans had their biggest lead of the night at 31-20, hadn't allowed a point in the second half to Lincoln Park and had a throng of fans in full throat at their backs.
Then Nelly Cummings happened.
The Leopards' star senior guard didn't do damage with his quickness, ball handling or leaping ability.
He did his damage standing still, 15 feet away from the rim.
Cummings was 20-of-21 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and 23-of-24 in the second half to lead Lincoln Park to a 54-46 win over North Catholic Monday night in the PIAA 3A semifinals at Ambridge High School.
Cummings made 14 straight free throws to help the Leopards overcome that 11-point deficit before his first miss and then closed the game with nine straight to salt the win away.
“A lot of hours in the gym,” Cummings said. “This environment did nothing to me. I spent 10,000 hours in the gym on free throws.”
Lincoln Park went 28-of-29 from the line in the game and made just 12 shots from the floor in the victory.
“You're not going to beat a team that sends a kid to the line 23 times in a game,” said North Catholic coach Dave Long. “We hold him to (seven) points from the field, but he gets those free throw numbers. That's a good job by him.
“We didn't do anything too awful,” Long added, “unless you count letting him get the ball in the first place.”
Cummings was a non-factor in the first half, scoring just two points and not getting to the line at all.
That allowed North Catholic to take a 22-20 lead at the break despite its own cold shooting.
The Trojans stormed out on a 9-0 run covering the first half of the third quarter and appeared in complete control.
“We didn't rebound defensively — they had three hoops off missed shots,” Long said. “That's six point right there that helped them get back into the game.”
Lincoln Park pulled even at 34-34 on an offensive rebound and putback by Tanner Mathos and then Cummings was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and drained all three to give the Leopards the lead for good with 5:46 remaining in the fourth.
Lincoln Park led by eight with 2:18 remaining, but North Catholic made one last push and cut the deficit to 45-44 a minute later.
But Cummings, who led all scorers with 30 points, made eight more free throws to send Lincoln Park to the PIAA 3A title game against Neumann-Goretti or Del-Val Charter Thursday night in Hershey.
Neumann-Goretti and Del-Val play today.“Good players end up (at the line),” Long said. “You have to admire a kid who can do that.”Lincoln Park also avenged a WPIAL title game loss to the Trojans.“This was the game we were waiting for,” Cummings said. “We were hungry. Every practice since then was for them.”Kenny Fukon led North Catholic with 16 points.The loss brought a sudden close to another strong season for the Trojans.“The saddest part of the whole thing is not getting to be with these kids and practice tomorrow,” Long said. “Everybody wants to go to the big game and have a chance to be a state champion and we did everything we could to achieve that. Coming up short, there's no shame in that.”LINCOLN PARK 54Nelly Cummings 3-12 23-24 30, Keeno Holmes 2-4 0-0 4, Tanner Mathos 3-5 0-0 6, Thomas Melonja 1-4 0-0 2, Evan Brown 1-4 3-3 5, Nick Antonucci 1-2 2-2 4. Totals: 12-34 28-29 54.CWNC 46Zach Offi 4-9 2-2 12, John Fukon 5-10 0-0 11, Kenny Fukon 5-11 6-9 16, Isaiah Wilson 2-7 0-1 4, Vinnie DiNicola 1-3 0-0 3, Jack Carmody 0-1 0-0 0, Dom Serventi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-41 8-12 46.Lincoln Park 10 10 10 24 — 54CWNC7 15 12 12 — 463-point goals: Lincoln Park 2 (Cummings, Brown); CWNC 4 (Offi 2, J. Fukon, DiNicola)
