Northland holds off Panthers

During an uphill climb, Linden-McKinley found itself in a battle with Northland, in hopes to pull off an upset for the second time in three years.

On Feb. 2, 2024, Northland was in the driver's seat as usual when it came to leading the Columbus City League North Division. Linden-McKinley had a group of well prepared senior guards who found a way to muzzle the visiting Northland offense to a season low in scoring on the way to a 49-37 win.

Fast forward to the 2025-26 season, on Dec. 19, both schools squared off in a contest where many of the players on both rosters were either in middle school, at other high schools or had lesser roles in 2023-24.

Northland and Linden-McKinley both entered the game tied for second place in conference play with 2-1 records. Northland, the home team was looking to put together its first two-game win streak of the year, while Linden-McKinley was on a two-game win streak after losing the first two contests of the season.

Just as it did, in its previous game, a win over East, Northland dominated the early part of the game offensively and defensively. Northland started out 13-0 over East on Tuesday. Three days later, the Vikings had an 8-0 advantage over Linden-McKinley who failed to score over the game's first four and a half minutes. The Panthers seemed to be outmatched by Northland's length which included forwards 6-7 Daneal Krylov, 6-5 Owan Mburugu and guard/forward 6-3 Vandell Slade.

An eager sophomore, Slade used his quickness and size advantage on both ends of the floor to make stops on defense and score baskets on offense. He drove for layups, scored from the mid-range and defended Linden-McKinley shots in the paint. Slade scored eight points in the first quarter, which was a much as Linden-McKinley had as a unit.

After a 15-8 lead in the first quarter, the second quarter came and it marked the beginning of an putrid offensive stretch. Northland scored just four field goals and Linden-McKinley posted two. Emmanuel Towns was the only Linden-McKinley player who scored a field goal for the entire first half. He posted 12 of his 14 points before halftime. Northland led 26-16 at the intermission.

Hot three-point shooting from the opponent was a problem for the Vikings in three of their first five games, which led to the team's 2-3 start to the season. Against Linden-McKinley, the three-point shot wasn't much of an issue. The Panthers made just two three-pointers the entire night. What made the game interesting is that the fouls of Northland piled up and in time, Slade, Mburugu and some of the other Vikings couldn't defend as aggressively as they did at the beginning of the contest.

Linden-McKinley head coach Kevin Darthard had his smaller team attack the much bigger Northland defense with constant drives to the basket. That along with sound defense brought back memories of that February 2024 win for Linden-McKinley. Northland struggled to score and found itself with just six points in the quarter in the final seconds of the period.

As the game was trudging along to a 32-29 score and spectators were anticipating the start of the fourth quarter, Northland's Diante James pulled a rabbit out of a hat. After receiving an inbound pass from Owan Mburgu, James dribbled up the court only to find himself about five-feet outside of the three-point line against two defenders. While appearing as if he lost his dribble, James gathered himself spun around and launched a shot that surprised the crowd as it rattled in for three points. It was just the third successful shot for Northland during the period. James scored two of the three.

In the final period, the Northland offense found life, as did Linden-McKinley. James followed his third quarter buzzer beater, with a lay-up at the start of the fourth quarter. Surprisingly, Daneal Krylov, who usually is one of the team's top offensive performers, entered the fourth quarter scoreless. Like a talented scorer does, Krylov recognized his advantages against the Linden-McKinley players assigned to defend against him.

Krylov posted all eight of his points in the final period as Northland outscored Linden-McKinley 18-15 in the quarter on the way to a 53-44 victory.

Slade led Northland with 14 points, James scored 12 and Mburugu had 10. Linden-McKinley was led by An'Kaveon Little who scored all of his 18 points in the second half.

Northland is now 3-3, with a 3-1 record in the Columbus City League. After entering the night in a tie for second place with Mifflin, East and Linden-McKinley, it was only Northland who closed the night with a win. Mifflin loss to Beechcroft 79-75 and East was routed 96-60 to first place Centennial.

Northland will take on Euclid, Monday, Dec. 22 at 4:30 pm. The two teams will compete at the Columbus Convention Center. Euclid is a suburban school of the greater Cleveland area. It started the season at 3-2, including a big win against area rival Mentor. Euclid is scheduled to play another rival, Villa Angela-St. Joseph today at 2 pm.