King Kendrick leads Northland to Columbus City League crown with 60-58 win over Africentric

COLUMBUS, Ohio – There’s a new king of the Columbus City League, or from another perspective, a return to the top spot for a program well-versed in success in the not-too-distant past.

On Saturday, the Northland boys basketball team rode a 33-point performance from freshman guard King Kendrick to a 60-58 victory over defending champion Africentric at Columbus East.

The Vikings won nine City championships in 10 seasons from 2007-16 but lost in City finals in 2017 and ’19 and entered the matchup looking to dethrone a Nubians team that features Xavier-recruit Dailyn Swain and was a Division III state semifinalist a year ago.

“All week before this game, we had our game plan and we knew we had a job to do and got it done,” Northland senior guard Davion Bridges said. “Just to know that Northland had a huge pedigree and to bring it back, it means a lot. We all stick together, no matter what.”

Northland, which improved to 15-7 while the Nubians dropped to 16-5, trailed 50-44 heading into the final period after a dunk by Swain during the final minute of the third quarter.

Kendrick helped fuel a rally with 10 fourth-quarter points, including a pair of free throws with 3.6 seconds left.

“Just knock them down, that was the only thing going through my head,” Kendrick said. “I just train hard and was just confident. I put in the work to be able to knock down shots and be a great player.”

The Nubians, who are the No. 1 seed for the district tournament which begins in less than two weeks, fell behind 56-54 on a basket by Kendrick with 3:43 remaining but tied it on a basket by sophomore Chris Cooper-Patton with 3:02 to go.

A pair of free throws by Kendrick gave the Vikings a two-point lead, but Africentric junior guard Laron Fuller drove for a layup with 33 seconds left to tie it at 58.

That set the stage for Kendrick, who was fouled again after driving to the lane and hit both free throws for the game's final points.The Nubians got the ball to Swain on their final possession, but his 3-point attempt just over halfcourt as time expired was off the mark as the Vikings held on.

Swain finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds but missed all six of his field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter.

“He got double- and triple-teamed the whole game and I felt like he did an excellent job, but unfortunately we didn’t make enough plays,” Nubians head coach Michael Bates said. “We missed a lot of shots today and free throws in the fourth quarter. We missed eight free throws in the game and that kind of haunts you, too, in a two-point loss.”

Africentric was playing without its second-leading scorer, junior guard Cortez Freeman, who averages 17.4 points but was serving the third game of a four-game suspension.

Junior guard Preston Steele added 13 points for the Nubians, who trailed 36-33 at the half but got nine points from Swain in the third quarter.

“(Starter) Dyson Bibins actually got two fouls in the first quarter and only played four minutes in the first half, and I thought that hurt us,” Bates said. “What really essentially happened in the third quarter was that we were able to play with our full complement of players, we were able to defend and get some good shots and turn a three-point deficit into a six-point lead.

“We just didn’t execute down the stretch the way we needed to do in the fourth quarter. We missed a bunch of layups in the paint. We didn’t shoot the ball well in the fourth quarter and it came back to haunt us.”

Northland is in its second season under head coach Tihon Johnson, a former standout at East who went on to play for Idaho and overseas.

Among those on his coaching staff is Mike Thornton, who was the Nubians’ coach in 2005 when they won the City title and the Division IV state championship before later having all of their wins that season vacated because of the use of an ineligible player.

“We’re a gritty, hard-nosed, hard-working team and we prepared for this all year, since the summer time,” Johnson said. “The guys were ready and they responded. We’ve got two head coaches really with myself and Mike Thornton, who is one of the best to ever do it. We preach resilience and sticktoitiveness.

“When I was in high school I was a pretty good scorer, and Brookhaven always ran a double on me all day, so I just drew from my experience in that and knew how tiring it is. (Swain) got a lot of good shots and layups and looks at the rim early on, but I knew in the fourth quarter that the past pressure would wear on him. I felt like we had a game plan to come out with the win.”