Boys Basketball: Vikings take advantage of opportunity, win 2nd straight City title
Saturday, February 17, 2024
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
Northland’s Jaden Shoultz (right) celebrates with the City Championship trophy after the Vikings’ 63-46 win over South on Feb. 17 at East. Photo: Michael Rich
Even though it remained unclear which team would represent the City League-North Division in the City championship game until earlier this week, the members of the Northland boys basketball team never stopped believing things would work out in their favor.
After the Vikings won last year’s City-North title, they shared the regular-season title this winter with Linden-McKinley – thus activating a tiebreaker rule that would have sent the Panthers to the City championship because Northland had played in the contest more recently.
Linden, which last won the City-North in 2020, would have been the representative Saturday in the City title game at Columbus East but had already played the maximum of 22 games and thus became ineligible to play in the contest.
That re-opened the door for the Vikings, and they proved more than ready from the opening tip against City-South Division champion Columbus South.
Northland built a double-digit lead by halftime and held the Bulldogs to 2-for-28 shooting from 3-point range on its way to a 63-46 victory.
“We were so prepared and watched so much film,” said sophomore guard King Kendrick, whose team improved to 17-3 overall. “We knew everything they were going to do and we were so locked in. It was about preparation.
Northland’s King Kendrick (1) shoots during the City League Championship boys basketball game against South on Feb. 17 at East. Photo: Michael Rich
“It’s amazing. We talked it into existence. We said, ‘Kings of the City,’ and even when we lost to (Linden) we said, ‘Kings of the City.’ It was meant to be that we’d be in the City.”
Kendrick starred a year ago when Northland beat Africentric for its first City title since 2016 and pumped in 14 points during the first half against South, which beat Northland in City finals in 2017 and 2019 and was making its third title-game appearance under coach Ramon Spears.
Kendrick’s 3-pointer with 1 minute, 30 seconds left in the second quarter gave Northland a 33-18 lead, and the Vikings were ahead 35-22 at the half.
South, which dropped to 16-4, had won 10 in a row and is the ninth seed for the Division I district tournament. The Bulldogs open the postseason March 1 at home against 24th-seeded DeSales or 29th-seeded Hilliard Davidson.
“(Northland) played amazing,” Spears said. “They did what the scouting report said and what we thought they were going to do. They were very active, and on top of that, we had one of our worst shooting days. We were 2-for-28 on 3s, so you’re never going to win the game that way.
“We just couldn’t put any runs together. We had some bad shot selection today. I don’t want to take anything away from what Northland did, but we have to take some ownership on some of the things we did, and we did not have our best game.”
Northland’s Jaden Shoultz dunks during the City League Championship boys basketball game against East on Feb. 17 at East. Photo: Michael Rich
The Bulldogs cut it to 35-27 with 3:48 left in the third quarter after senior Chris Stokes hit a 3-pointer and added a basket, but Northland didn’t give up another point during the period and led 39-27 heading into the fourth quarter.
Vikings sophomore Jaden Shoultz hit a 3-pointer with 6:44 remaining to give his team a 42-29 lead, and Northland never led by fewer than 10 during the game’s remainder.
Also in the final period, Vikings junior forward Nehemiah McMorris had 12 of his 17 points – including completing two dunks.
McMorris did not play prep basketball last winter and is new to the team this winter after being a backup in 2021-22 for Gahanna when it reached a Division I regional final.
“The second half we just turned it up,” McMorris said. “I started getting rebounds, started hustling, started running down the floor, and we were scoring.
“Last week as soon as we got the call (that Northland would compete in the City final), we were in the gym four hours a day.”
Maurice McCall had 17 points and LaJames Washington added 14 for South.
McMorris finished with 17 points and both Kendrick and Shoultz scored 16 for the Vikings, who are the 18th seed for the Division I district tournament and open March 1 at home against 10th-seeded Gahanna or 22nd-seeded Walnut Ridge.
“They did an amazing job,” Northland assistant coach Leo Cleary-Foeller said. “We always thought we should be in the City and always knew we deserved to be in the City. Shout out to Linden because they had an amazing year and they’ve got a great group of kids, but we believed we were supposed to be here from the beginning of the year. We just talked about preparation, and we had our best week of practice this week. Everybody was super focused, and it showed.”
South’s Maurice McCall (left) passes while Jashir Smith (right) defends during the City League Championship boys basketball game on Feb. 17 at East. Photo: Michael Rich