Centennial repeats as Columbus City League girls champions, underscoring sustained depth and postseason ambitions for 2024-25

Centennial secures another City League crown

Centennial’s girls basketball program has repeated as Columbus City League champion, extending a run of conference success that has positioned the Lady Stars among the area’s most consistent teams. The title again places Centennial at the center of the City League’s highest-profile matchup window, typically staged at a neutral site and preceded by heightened event security and student-attendance requirements.

The championship setting has recently included a neutral-site format at Mifflin High School, where City League title games have been scheduled as ticketed events with entry screening and school ID expectations for students. That structure reflects the league’s broader effort to manage large crowds and ensure orderly access during marquee contests.

Context: City League competition and a familiar championship opponent

In recent seasons, Centennial has routinely shared the City League championship stage with Columbus Africentric, a program that has paired local dominance with statewide success. Africentric’s recent record includes a City League championship win over Centennial on February 10, 2024, and a Division III state championship on March 16, 2024, reinforcing the competitive standard Centennial has had to meet to sustain its own conference-winning trajectory.

Centennial’s path to the top of the City League has also been supported by regular-season results that demonstrate both scoring capacity and defensive control. Among reported results from the 2025-26 season calendar, Centennial posted a 64–23 win over Northland on January 20, 2026, illustrating the kind of margin that often separates top-tier programs from the rest of the league field.

What the repeat signals entering the tournament phase

A City League repeat does not end a season in central Ohio; it functions as a checkpoint heading into the Ohio High School Athletic Association tournament. For Centennial, that transition has included seeding implications at the district level, where bracket placement can determine whether a program’s most difficult matchups arrive early or late.

In the 2026 Division III district picture, Centennial has been listed as a No. 2 seed with a scheduled district final date of February 26, 2026 at Ohio Dominican, in a projected rematch scenario involving Granville, the defending district champion from the prior season’s final. Such scheduling underscores the narrow margins that often separate conference champions from deep postseason runs.

Key takeaways

• Centennial’s repeat City League championship confirms sustained conference performance rather than a single-year surge.
• The City League title environment has increasingly emphasized neutral sites, ticketing, and security procedures.
• The repeat sets a competitive baseline, but postseason outcomes will hinge on district matchups and bracket dynamics.

City League championships establish local supremacy; district and regional play determines how far that supremacy can carry into March.