The Altavista boys basketball team won its first state championship since 2004 Friday.
The Colonels knocked off West Point 80-62 on Friday for the Division 1 championship in Richmond.
Juan Thornhill led Altavista, which jumped out to a 41-26 lead at halftime for Mike Cartolaro's team.
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FLOYD COUNTY GIRLS
The Floyd County Lady Buffaloes were the last local team to play a semifinal game Friday at the state tournament.
It was well worth the wait for the Buffaloes. Floyd County rallied from a seven-point first quarter deficit to knock off George Mason on Friday morning in a Division 2 state semifinal game. The Buffaloes will play Central-Wise at 3 p.m. Saturday in Richmond for the state championship.
Floyd County’s Carley Lytton led the Buffaloes with 23 points.
“I've never been to states so I started out feeling a lot of nerves but I stayed confident in my shot and just picked it up and got excited as the game kept going,” Lytton said.
Stephanie Cheney led the Mustangs, dropping 33 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
Floyd County went on a 15-5 run in the second quarter and took a 36-31 lead into the locker room.
“We got down a couple times in the first half and again in the second half,” Floyd County coach Travis Cantrell said. “They showed a lot of heart there in the second half to step up and knock down some big shots. Defensively we got some big stops and hustle plays in the fourth quarter that gave us some momentum.”
ALTAVISTA GIRLS
Sarah Cameron scored 13 points, including two free throws with two seconds remaining, as East Rockingham defeated Altavista 35-31 to win the Virginia High School League girls Division 1 championship for the second consecutive year.
Cameron added 10 rebounds and four steals for East Rockingham (29-1), which beat Covington in last season's title game. Meghan Nicholson added eight points and three steals and Jessica Lam scored seven points and had six rebounds for the Eagles.
Altavista (23-5) was led by Sydney Morris with nine points and had 17 rebounds. Takara Dews scored nine points for the Colonels.
East Rockingham held a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter but Altavista came back to cut the lead to 32-31 with 3:21 left before the Eagles forced four turnovers over the final 2:40 to hold on.
