Cyrus McGinnis pointed to the 1998 state championship banner hanging in Young’s gymnasium. He was an assistant coach under George Stanton back then, and the banner signified the last memory he had in the Dolphins’ gym.
That is, until Wednesday night.
Returning to Young for the first time since he left following the 1998 season, only as the head coach of Lincoln Park, McGinnis and his undersized squad upended the top-ranked Dolphins 58-55 in a Public League Red Northwest contest.
The loss was Young’s first of the season, dropping the Dolphins to 9-1 and 1-1 in the conference, a game behind Lincoln Park (10-3, 2-0).
“This is kind of an emotional win,” said McGinnis, who was battling the flu. “I have a lot of memories here.”
Lincoln Park got off to a memorable start and only trailed once–14-13 late in the first quarter–thanks to Jason Moore. The 6-foot-1-inch senior swingman, who’s the team’s leading rebounder, scored 14 of his 16 points in the first quarter as the Lions mounted a 21-16 lead.
Young, playing without high-scoring guard Anthony Harris, who was out with a knee injury, never quite recovered and had no solution for Lincoln Park’s balanced attack. Four Lions scored in double figures, led by 5-9 point guard Royce Parran, who notched a team-high 17 points. Parran scored six of his team’s eight points in the fourth quarter and held off Young’s late push by netting 3-of-4 free throws in the final 24 seconds.
“We believe we can compete with any team,” Parran said. “We were a little sloppy, but we got the win.”
Lincoln Park turned the ball over twice in the final 90 seconds as Young got within 55-53 with 26.5 seconds left behind 6-8 Dwayne Curtis, who scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter. Curtis, who also had 13 rebounds and seven blocks, had a chance to tie the game but missed the front end of a one-and-one.
“We just haven’t been practicing well lately, and this is the outcome of it,” Young coach Ron Branch said.
