Lincoln Park coach Ryan Kacsur called Maddie Syka a coach’s dream.
On Tuesday, Syka produced a career-best performance that helped keep one of her team’s dreams alive.
Their dream of an unbeaten season.
In an absolute thriller, Syka poured in 39 points and teammate Sarah Scott scored on a follow at the overtime buzzer to help Lincoln Park rally from 18 points down to win at Trinity, 61-60, in a showdown for first place in WPIAL Class 5A Section 4.
With the win, Lincoln Park (16-0, 5-0) takes a one-game lead on Trinity (11-4, 4-1) in the section after handing the Hillers a third consecutive loss. Lincoln Park, along with Class 6A Peters Township (17-0) and Class 5A Oakland Catholic (17-0) are the only remaining unbeaten teams in the WPIAL.
“I’ve got seniors and these girls know that they don’t give up and they keep playing to the end,” said Kacsur, who starts five seniors and has seven of them on the roster.
So, in a game in which Lincoln Park trailed, 35-17, with just over two minutes left in the first half, the Leopards used a fierce second-half rally to force overtime and claim the last-second win.
With Trinity leading, 60-59, in the extra period, Lincoln Park’s J’La Kizart was fouled and went to the line for two free throws with 5.8 seconds left. Kizart, the team’s leading scorer, misfired on both attempts. Teammate Sincere Conley grabbed the rebound and failed to convert a putback try, but Scott, a 6-foot senior forward and the team’s only four-year starter, scooped up that miss in front of the basket and layed it in for the win.
“Sarah has dedicated herself to this program for four years,” Kacsur said of Scott, who finished with 15 points. “She’s been here through it all and found a way to get the win. To me, there’s nothing better than having her grab that basket. For what she has done for this program, it’s just awesome, man.”
Added Syka, “We were all just so excited when it went in.”
Syka was fabulous as she accounted for nearly two-thirds of Lincoln Park’s points. Syka, who came into the game second on the team in scoring with 17.4 points per game, rocketed to a career high after scoring 7 points in the first quarter, 10 in the second, 12 in the third, 5 in the fourth, and 5 in overtime. She made six 3-pointers. Until Conley scored in the final seconds of the third quarter, Syka and Scott had combined for all 38 of their team’s points. Kizart, who was averaging 18.8 points, was held without a field goal. Her only point came on a free throw in the opening seconds of overtime.
“J’La, our leading scorer, makes no baskets today and scored one point from the foul line,” Kacsur said. “If you had told me before the game that we would still score 60 points, I would have laughed at you.”
Said Syka, “I come in every game knowing that I have the ability to shoot shots when I’m open. J’La does a great job shooting and getting points. I just go as the game goes. I just know when I have to step up a little bit. Everyone stepped up this game, which was tremendous. I just take my opportunities when I get them and hope for the best.”
For a half, the story of the game was Ruby Morgan and Trinity’s perimeter shooting. A senior, Morgan was unconscious shooting the ball in the first half when she scored 19 points and made six of Trinity’s nine 3-pointers. Morgan drilled four triples in the second quarter, the final of which started a four-point play that gave the Hillers their 18-point lead. Morgan was held scoreless for the remainder of the game.
“They literally could not miss in the first half,” said Syka, whose team trailed, 37-23, at the half.
But in what was a tale of two halves, Lincoln Park held a 28-14 scoring advantage in the second half. After the Leopards trimmed their deficit to 44-40 at the end of the third quarter, Abbi Jannuzi banked in a jumper to pull them even at 49-49 with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter. Syka then made two free throws to give Lincoln Park the lead with 58 seconds remaining before Trinity forced overtime courtesy of freshman Sutton Williamson’s layup with nine seconds left.
Lincoln Park led by as many as four points in overtime, but Trinity surged back to tie the game on Aggie Niccolai’s two free throws with 37 seconds left before taking a 60-59 lead when Niccolai went 1 of 2 from the line with 13.9 left. That set the stage for Scott’s heroics.
In addition to Morgan’s 19 points, Trinity got 15 from Niccolai. After making those nine 3-pointers in the first half, the Hillers never made another.
The teams will meet again at Lincoln Park on Feb. 8.
“We knew coming in at halftime that we’ve done this before,” said Syka, whose Leopards rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to defeat Hampton in the season opener. “Our bench was awesome. We had everyone in the game up and playing awesome defense. Just really gritty. We’re so excited right now and so happy. We knew we were going to pull it out, and it’s exciting.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.