Africentric wins fourth straight City League title

Africentric wins fourth straight City League title

Photo By Terry Gilliam

Raven Ferguson

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By Mike Wachman

It may have been a brand spanking new gym, but the result in the City League girls championship basketball game was the same old thing.

Led by its aggressive defense and solid shooting, Africentric won the City League title for the fourth straight year, blasting an overmatched Northland squad 69-37 in the first game played at the refurbished gymnasium of East High School. Sophomore guard Raven Ferguson led the way for the Nubians (16-4), scoring 21 points and yanking down 11 rebounds. Africentric, the state Division IV runner-up a season ago, looks primed to make a deep tournament run this year thanks in part to a deep bench. That group kept the momentum going as the Nubians expanded a 12-5 first quarter lead to 27-7 midway through the second quarter.

"I'll tell you what, our bench was the difference today," Africentric coach Will McKinney said. "We made some substitutions and those kids played just as hard and as well as our regulars. I was hoping we would be able to give some of our starters a breather here and there today, and we were. When our bench is playing like that it makes us that much more difficult to play against."

Ferguson, a 5-10 slasher with a well-rounded offensive game, was the catalyst for Africentric. She scored the first four points of the second quarter and 14 of her game-high total in the opening half.

"I was hoping to set a tempo," she said. "We just needed to work hard and get on them early. There was some talking going on before the game, and coach told us it wasn't going to be about the talk but about who played the best. We were able to force some turnovers and get them out of what they like to do, and that was the biggest thing."

Senior forward Ashar Harris, who added 10 points, is the glue that holds the squad together, and as such has been preaching about the proper mentality heading into tournament time.

"We play as a unit. It's not about individuals," she said. "When we're all playing together and working together we're very tough to stop. I think you saw today that everyone was going after the ball on defense, and players were making the extra pass when they had on offense. I just think it's an overall team mentality."

Northland (17-3) was led by senior Destiney Gaston, who tallied 14 points, seven blocks and six rebounds in the loss.

Vikings coach Dean Washington, who won City League coach of the year honors earlier in the week, was disappointed in the result but not in his team's effort.

"We made some mistakes out there and didn't play the way we're capable, but I think Africentric had a lot to do with that," he said. "Our seniors are a little down about it now, and they're allowed to be. I don't think they thought 'hey it's great to get here.' I think they wanted to come out and win the game today. But everyone needs to get over the frustration of this game and get ready for practice Monday morning at 8:30 because now it's one and done, and we have to worry about Marion-Franklin."

The Nubians won the state title in 2007 with experience, but this year's team may be deeper and more dangerous.

"We have a lot of kids who are hungry and who work hard and who saw that team win it all," McKinney said. "A few of our kids were on that team and want to get back to that point. It may sound funny, but a lot of people regard us as the underdog. We don't have this and we don't have that, but we do have a lot of kids who just play for each other. They don't get down and don't get rattled.

"I also think one other reason they came out so fired up today was that they saw those green and gold uniforms. Those are the same colors that (South Euclid) Regina wears, and they were not going to let (a 40-point loss) happen again. I think maybe if Northland had different colors it might have been a different game."

The four straight titles for Africentric is the second longest streak in City League history, trailing the five won by Columbus South from 1985-89. The Bulldogs the dominant team of that era, winning eight City League crowns in 11 years between 1983 and 1993. Brookhaven won four straight on two separate occasions, with only a 1998 title by Northland standing in the way of nine straight Bearcats crowns.

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