COLUMBUS — The stars have been aligning for Gene Darling’s sports teams at Northern Burlington.
Nearly one year to the day that the boys basketball team got the longtime head coach his 200th career win, the Greyhounds hosted Allentown on a special night when the school raised its state championship banner for the 2025 baseball team, which Darling also coaches.
As fate would have it, Northern Burlington celebrated Monday with a thrilling 82-74 victory in double overtime.
“It’s amazing,” said senior guard Rowan Boyce, who led a nine-point comeback by the Greyhounds in the second half and finished with a career-high 26 points. “I’m glad all the baseball fans were here to enjoy it. I love my team.”
Northern Burlington’s Group III title in baseball last spring was the first state crown in program history. That team also set the school record with 28 wins.
The baseball players — including the seniors who are now in college — came to the basketball gym wearing their jerseys again and received honorary championships rings during the unveiling of the new banner.
Northern Burlington’s 2025 Group III state championship baseball banner was unveiled Monday during the boys basketball team’s game against Allentown. (Greg Johnson/ Trentonian Photo)
The district’s Board of Education honored the team at its Monday night meeting after the game. Darling noted that it also made sense to do the celebration against Allentown, which is another top baseball school in the area.
“We wanted to make sure our seniors were back from college. To see those guys at halftime, it was amazing. It’s memories,” Darling said. “We haven’t seen them in a while, so to see (Luca) Mannino and (Nick) Dromboski and (Jimmy) Musser and Flip (Nick Filipponi) and all the seniors, it’s just like, ‘Alright, I remember that.’ The jerseys were on. It makes it very special for them and for me obviously. It’s a long-time coming, and those guys, I’m glad they got to see a good game as well.”
It was an instant classic between two up-and-coming teams that entered the game with identical 4-2 records and played with a high level of energy.
Northern Burlington came out hot and knocked down five of its first six shots in the first quarter to take the early lead. Allentown stayed in it with a barrage of 3-pointers, finishing with eight in the first half to pull ahead 37-33 before halftime.
“They were shooting great the entire first half and we were still in the game, so we knew if we just keep locking down on defense and playing our game, we were in it,” Boyce said. “We were gonna win.”
Senior Rowan Boyce starred for Northern Burlington in an 82-74 win against Allentown on Monday with 26 points. (Greg Johnson/ Trentonian Photo)
Allentown extended its lead to 50-41 in the third quarter before Northern Burlington came roaring back to within 49-50 going into the fourth quarter. Freshman Quincy Washington (22 points) and junior Erick Torres (20 points) starred alongside Boyce with stellar shot-making and play-making off the dribble.
Boyce tied the game at 64 with a layup in the final minute of regulation. He then guided Northern Burlington to the finish line with nine points across both overtimes.
“Obviously they had to match up somewhere, and they were leaving Rowan with a guy that we thought he could go by,” Darling said. “He really rose to that occasion. He created a spark for us offensively, and when other guys are shooting the ball well, they (the other team) can’t really give help. And he took advantage of that.”
Rowan also grabbed a steal and lobbed an assist down the court to Washington to make it 74-70 early in the second overtime. Northern Burlington never looked back.
“It’s nerve-wracking, but you’re not thinking in the moment, so you just take it,” Rowan said when asked about making so many clutch plays in tense situations.
No way that the Greyhounds were going to lose on the baseball team’s banner night, right?
“Oh yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah,” Rowan said. “Especially the crowd was going crazy at halftime from all the baseball fans. We wanted to put on a show for them, too, because they don’t get to see every game.”
It was a tough pill to swallow for Allentown, which had four different players score double figures including senior Tyler Pusczko (15 points), who fouled out with 3:14 left in the first overtime.
Allentown missed two potential game-winning shots at the end of regulation and then tied the game at the end of the first overtime on a buzzer beater by Quiin Bomani.
There wouldn’t have even been a second overtime without several missed free throws from Northern Burlington, but the Greyhounds outlasted the Redbirds with four field goals and key free throws in the final extra session.
“Just a very good basketball game, back and forth. Not many turnovers on both teams,” Darling said. “Both teams were working hard defensively even though that didn’t really show up. It was an offensive fireworks show.”
Gavin Hoppe, one of two Northern Burlington basketball players who also play baseball (Matt Caloiaro), had eight points. Marcus Kemp added six in a well-rounded effort from what has the makings of an undersized but more athletic Greyhounds team than usual.
“It’s a great start to the season,” Boyce said. “It’s a different team this year, but I’m excited.”
Especially when big wins come on special nights for the school.
“Definitely the stars aligned,” Darling said.
ALLENTOWN (74)
Pless 6-0-14, Varricchio 3-0-8, Doran 5-4-14, Pusczko 5-2-15, Shellenberger 4-1-11, Bomani 5-0-10, Heissler 0-2-2.
Totals — 28-9-74.
NO. BURLINGTON (82)
Washington 8-5-22, Torres 6-4-20, Boyce 10-6-26, Hoppe 3-0-8, Kemp 2-1-6.
Totals — 29-16-82.
Allentown (4-3) 19 18 13 14 6 4 — 74
No. Burlington (5-2) 22 11 16 15 6 12 — 82
3-point goals: Pusczko 3, Pless 2, Varricchio 2, Shellenberger 2 (A), Torres 4, Hoppe 2, Washington, Kemp (NB).