What do you get a high school basketball coach who starts five freshmen and likes to do a lot of golfing in their free time for Christmas?
Lincoln Park coach Mike Bariski knows because he fits that description perfectly.
“I got GPS for my golf clubs and Mason Rowan for Christmas,” Bariski said.
The weather will dictate how quickly Bariski is able to make full use of those club GPS and sensors, but he won’t have to wait to see what the addition of Rowan will mean to his team.
Rowan is a talented 6-foot-4 junior guard who is now enrolled at Lincoln Park and practiced with the team for the fifth time on Monday. He’s expected to make his Lincoln Park debut Friday when the Leopards travel to Chartiers Valley for a section game.
Rowan is the younger brother of Lincoln Park great Maverick Rowan, who scored 1,482 points and made 142 3-pointers as a freshman and sophomore at the school before playing his junior season at Cardinal Gibbons in Florida. Maverick, who originally committed to play at Pitt, then reclassified before playing collegiately at N.C. State. A sister, Madi, once starred on the Lincoln Park girls team.
Maverick now plays professionally in Italy for Pistoia, a team that was bought in April by an investment team led by his father, Ron, once a WPIAL star himself at Beaver Falls.
Mason had been living in Florida with his mom, Tara, and brother Mylan, but Bariski said the family sold their landscaping business and moved back to a house they own in Center Township.
In Florida, Mason played at Pompano Beach High School and averaged 11 points and 4.8 rebounds per game his sophomore season, ranking second on the team in both categories. Florida has seven classifications, with 7A being the largest. Pompano Beach played in 4A.
“He might make all the difference in the world,” Bariski said. “He should take a lot of the scoring pressure off. He’s a Rowan. They can play.”
Lincoln Park is in need of a difference maker as the Leopards (2-6 overall, 0-2 in Class 5A Section 4) have struggled in the early going, this after winning back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA titles the previous two seasons. While it’s odd to see Lincoln Park struggle, it was expected after the Leopards lost all five starters from last year’s group, among them all-state guards and co-PUP players of the year Brandin “Beebah” Cummings and Meleek Thomas.
So, Bariski has an all-freshmen starting five, a quintet he hopes will develop into fabulous players. The five are 5-8 Avon Pressley, 5-10 Damar Johnson, 6-0 Dionte Henry, 6-2 Antonio Goodman and 6-5 Amir Woods. The top players off the bench have been 6-8 sophomore Taymeir Holmes and 5-10 junior Aaron Wehner.
Johnson, the most highly regarded of the freshmen, scored 17 points in a win against Hopewell and leads the young Leopards in scoring with 9.5 points a game.
“We’re only averaging 40-some points a game. We’d score 40 points in one quarter last season,” Bariski said.
Bariski said he likes the potential of his team and believes it will be a formidable squad a season from now. The biggest obstacle right now, he said, is getting bigger and stronger.
“We’re getting better and better, but the physicality of 14-year-olds playing against 18-year-olds, everybody has noticed that. That’s the difference,” he said.
Gompers makes instant impact
Bradley Gompers’ Central Catholic teammates doused him with water and celebrated his winning shot in the locker room following a game last Friday.
It was quite a reception for a kid playing in his first game of the season.
Gompers, the PUP football player of the year who will play that sport at Duke, had a memorable debut on the basketball court in a 73-72 win at Bishop McDevitt. Gompers wears No. 21, but this game was brought to you by the No. 15. Gompers scored 15 points, highlighted by the winning 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, allowing Central Catholic to storm back from 15 points down to claim the team’s fourth win in a row. On the winning shot, Gompers took a pass from Enzo Khalil and drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner before raising his arms and putting his hand over his mouth in disbelief.
Gompers had taken some time to rest his body following a long football season that saw Central Catholic win the WPIAL Class 6A championship and reach the PIAA title game. The season-ending loss to St. Joseph’s Prep came on Dec. 7.
And while Gompers’ body likely felt better when he made his debut, one would think he would be rusty basketball-wise considering he had just one practice under his belt. Central Catholic coach Brian Urso said that Gompers practiced a day earlier, but that’s it.
“He makes the game-winning shot and plays his heart out,” Urso said. “He’s always a super competitor. I think that when he hit that 3, he was more shocked than anyone.”
Gompers, a four-star football recruit and the highest-rated recruit in Duke history, was one of two Central Catholic football players who made their season debuts Friday, the other being Penn State recruit Xxavier Thomas. The Vikings played again Saturday, and Gompers scored a team-high 12 points in a loss.
The addition of Gompers is a big one for Central Catholic, which is 5-4 overall and 2-1 in Class 6A Section 2. Gompers is a 6-5 senior forward who was an all-section pick a season ago when he led the Vikings in scoring (11.4 points per game) and rebounds (7 per game).
“It’s going to be awesome,” Urso said. “Just his experience alone. He’s a winner. He knows what it takes to win.”
Gompers will miss two games next week, though, as he will be in San Antonio to play in the Navy All-American Bowl.
Mars hot from deep
A school named after the “Red Planet” has been red hot from 3-point range this season.
Mars had some excellent 3-point shooting teams in Rob Carmody’s 26 seasons as coach. Carmody resigned after last season, but the Planets are still putting up some big numbers from the perimeter.
The Planets, under first-year coach Kobe Phillippi, have knocked down an average of 9.7 3-pointers per game this season. They have hit 88 overall on their way to a 6-3 start (2-0 in Class 5A Section 4). The Planets average 67.4 points per game, so the three ball has accounted for 43% of their scoring. They have made at least eight triples in all but two games, including 19 against Blackhawk and 18 against North Hills.
Junior guard Austen Wroblewski and senior guard Drew Navetta have been the most potent shooters from the outside, with Wroblewski sinking a team-best 29 3-pointers and Navetta making 27. Navetta connected on eight against Blackhawk, all coming in the first three quarters.
And then there were four
Four WPIAL teams will take perfect records into 2025.
The first month of the season was a highly successful one for Class 6A New Castle (8-0), Class 5A Baldwin (9-0), Class 2A Jeannette (9-0) and Class 1A Neighborhood Academy (9-0), all of whom are still without a loss.
Neighborhood Academy’s start might be the most impressive considering that all but three of its wins are against teams from larger classifications. Additionally, the Bulldogs have beaten Class 6A Fox Chapel, Class 5A McKeesport and City League power Allderdice. They should be tested Saturday when they face Class 4A Beaver (7-3) in the Chuckie Mahoney Classic at Burgettstown.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.