City League Report: Gearing up for the home stretch
Looking back and forward to what was and will happen in the Columbus City League
COLUMBUS, Ohio - - A week that started with an epic performance with a side of a comeback victory on the north side and ended with the annual edition of The Challenge. This week was a roller coaster for the Columbus City League, with the high of good league battles and lows of finishing 1-3 at The Challenge against OCC teams. Centennial, Walnut Ridge and Africentric all fell on Saturday afternoon, with Northland being the one to beat their OCC counterpart.
With The Battle in the 614 coming up this weekend and three of the top team competing in the event, it’s another chance for the City League to show they can keep up with teams from outside of their own league.
Check out the happenings of last week and what’s ahead for this week in this edition below.
City League North:
Starting with the best game in the City League this past week, the East High School Tigers erased an eight-point fourth quarter deficit behind Daeshawn Fiore 18 points in 4th quarter Tuesday. The senior guard outscored Linden-McKinley by himself 18-11, including the go-ahead steal and layup in the Tigers 61-64 thrilling victory over the Panthers. The win snapped their two game losing streak, but the pride of the east side could not continue that momentum on Friday, losing to Mifflin in another hard fought game.
Fiore’s 35-point night is one of the highest scoring games for any City League player this year, the unsigned senior guard has shown over the past few seasons that he can put the ball in the basket as well as any player in the league.
Elsewhere in the north, Centennial beat Mifflin 87-74 behind senior big Angelo Diedalis and his 27 points along with Keon Bonner scoring 21. They continued their City League north perfection Friday when they beat International on the road.
The Stars then kicked off The Challenge on Saturday afternoon, losing to a suddenly healthy Olentangy Orange team 67-47. Sitting at 9-3 overall, Centennial is still in the midst of an historic season for that school, they have a big matchup against Worthington Kilbourne this upcoming Saturday at Ohio Dominican after hosting two teams that will play physical with them in Beechroft and Linden.
