A Grand Night for James

It can be said that the 2025-26 season has been a bit magical for Northland senior point guard Diante James. Not only is he hitting buzzer beaters and game-winning shots on a seemingly weekly basis, he added a new accomplishment to his basketball resume.

On, Tuesday, Jan. 13, James scored his 1,000th-point. With just under five minutes left the second quarter, senior guard Keondre Tubbs muscled down a defensive rebound against Mifflin forwards Chernor Jalloh and Keshon Bouttry. Tubbs sped up the court and found James who was being guarded by Mifflin senior guard Keon Gibson. As James dribbled to his right, Gibson ran into a pick from the large 6-9 Pharoahe Zaire. Gibson who is listed at 5-8 wasn't able to recover as the confident James drilled a very deep three-point shot that was closer to the half-court mark than the three-point line.

James turned towards the crowd in celebration after the make and the game was stopped to commemorate the moment. He posed for photos with his parents as well as Northland head coach Tihon Johnson as he held the ball. That shot gave Northland a 26-15 lead.

Early in the contest, Northland wasn't in much of a celebratory mood. Vandell Slade slammed in the first points of the night for the Vikings. Mifflin took a 6-2 lead over the first few minutes of the contest as Northland had a stretch where it committed four consecutive turnovers.

The Vikings came out of the doldrums and led 18-11 after the first quarter. As Slade and James combined to post 12 points outscoring the visiting Mifflin Punchers in the opening period.

Northland controlled the game for much of the second quarter but Mifflin took advantage of a little bit of Northland's lack of focus when it came to ball control. Instead of taking a 15 to 20-point into the half, which looked like was going to happen after James scored his 1,000th career point to make the game 26-15, Mifflin outscored Northland 13-11. The Vikings led 37-28 at halftime as Northland's coach Johnson appeared to be frustrated with his team's execution as he went into the locker room.

While Northland never played flawless basketball, the Vikings had an edge that it took advantage of throughout the contest, in the 76-54 win over Mifflin. The Vikings were longer and more physically imposing. We already mentioned the 6-9 center, Zaire, who is 350 pounds. He took up lots of space and made it extremely hard for Mifflin to do anything by the basket on the offensive end.

Northland's Owan Mburugu is a long 6-5 forward with downhill speed. He tortured Mifflin offensively and defensively with 21 points and two blocked shots. Small forwards Vandell Slade and Justin Williams are listed at 6-3 and 6-2 respectively. They reflected a lot of passes with their hands up on defense. Along with disrupting the ball movement, Slade swatted away a team best three shots as Williams also blocked two.

Slade, who scored 19 points also shared the team lead with James as the two had five steals apiece. James had 22 points and a season high nine assists. Mburugu accomplished a double-double with 14 rebounds to go along with his 21 points.

Mifflin was led in scoring by Nashawn Mitchell who entered the game averaging 14.6 points. The senior guard/forward scored 16 in the loss to Northland.

Northand (8-4) continues to stand alone in second place with a 6-1 record in Columbus City League play. Centennial (10-3) kept it's top spot in the conference improving to 7-0 after stopping Beechcroft at home in a 79-64 win on Jan. 13.

Mifflin (5-6) is now 3-4 in the conference and will travel to Whetstone, Jan. 16, who is starting to prove itself in the City League. After a narrow 31-25 loss to heavily favored Linden-McKinley on Jan. 9, Whetstone went to East and posted a 57-51 victory. It was Whetstone's first win over a Columbus City League opponent other than International since Feb. 2, 2024 when Whetstone edged out Beechcroft in a 58-56 win. Whetstone (4-7) is 2-5 in the conference.

Northland will take on International (2-9) on the road on Jan. 16. The Vikings, now on a five-game win streak defeated International 74-21 at home on Dec. 9, which was the first win of the year for Northland. International's 21 points against Northland was a season low. Despite being on a City League 30-game losing streak that started on Jan. 16, 2024, International ended a 39-game overall losing streak on Dec. 18 when it defeated non-conference foe Cristo Rey, 55-19. After dropping four-games following the win, International earned its second win of the season toppling another non-conference opponent, Madison Christian 66-31 on Jan. 21.

Northland continues to have the top defense in all of the Columbus City League North division. It has allowed just 332 points in seven contests. Northland is second in the conference in offense with 471 points.