Africentric routs Centennial for ninth consecutive City League girls basketball title
Samairah Thompson wound her way through the postgame scrum of coaches, teammates and fans Saturday, often pausing to accept congratulations and even get a few pictures with Africentric’s ninth consecutive City League girls basketball championship trophy.
But if anyone wanted to talk to the Nubians’ senior forward and Buffalo signee, she was quick to gesture to her throat.
After directing her teammates on the court and cheering them from the bench, Thompson didn’t have much of a voice left. But the Nubians’ performance spoke volumes, blowing open a seven-point lead late in the second quarter to rout Centennial 81-48 at East.
“We pride ourselves on balance and staying together, working strong,” Thompson said. “We had a lot of energy. We put our foot down (in the second half) and held it down. We never let up. We didn’t have to key on anybody specifically. We just had to shut them down and push on offense.”
Thompson’s 21 points led four scorers in double figures. Jeniya Bowers had 16 points, Natiah Nelson scored 14 and Ashtan Winfrey added 12 to power the defending state champion Nubians (19-2) to their 16th City title in 19 years.
Ranked seventh statewide in Division III, Africentric is the second seed in the upcoming district tournament behind Mechanicsburg.
The Nubians steadily extended their nine-point halftime lead in the third quarter, using their depth and a handful of second-chance shots to build a 57-39 advantage. Bowers scored 12 of her 16 points after the half on four 3-pointers.
Africentric’s lead peaked at 35 (81-46) in the final minutes.
“We played through our mistakes and anything that wasn’t going our way,” Nubians coach Janicia Anderson said. “We put ourselves in some bad positions defensively in the first half. We could have boxed out a lot better and we put them on the line too much, but we were a lot tougher in the second half. We got back to how we want to play.”
Freshman point guard Kennedy Houston’s 22 points led Centennial (17-2), which was making its first City final appearance since 2015. The Stars, who earned the third seed in the Division II district tournament, went 13-0 in the City-North to unseat perennial division champion Northland, which had been to the title game 12 times in the past 14 seasons.
Houston, who averaged 19.4 points, 7.3 steals and 6.4 assists entering Saturday, helped trim a 14-point deficit late in the first half. She hit a 10-footer and a 3-pointer, and older sister Kayla Houston added a layup to get Centennial within 35-28 with a minute to go, but a Winfrey floater made it 37-28 at halftime.
The Stars never got any closer and were not within single digits after the early moments of the second half.
Kayla Houston finished with 13 points.
“It was a war of attrition and we knew eventually that might catch up,” Centennial coach Ernest Bell said. “This was a learning experience for us. Our girls know nothing was promised. We wanted to get here and make the most of the opportunity.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: High school basketball: Africentric wins City League girls title
