The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Buford, Carver join rare company with title sweeps
It’s happened 20 times that a Georgia high school has won boys and girls basketball championships in the same season. Buford and Carver-Columbus are the latest.
Buford swept Class AAAAA when its girls defeated Villa Rica 67-59, and its boys beat Fayette County 76-69 on Friday at the Macon Coliseum. Carver-Columbus beat Spalding 56-44 in the AAAA girls final and Americus-Sumter 58-55 in the boys final.
“This is the biggest day in Carver High School history,’’ girls coach Anson Hundley said. “Everybody came together. The community came. The teams played, and we both walked off as state champions. That’s an amazing thing. It’s history that has been made.’’
While those were Carver’s third and fourth state titles in any sport, the sweep was more expected of Buford, which also swept in 2017 and claims nine basketball titles in its history. Both Buford teams entered ranked No. 1.
The girls trailed for much of three quarters against previously unbeaten Villa Rica, the school Buford beat last year for the crown, but their relentless pressure and deep bench took their toll. Buford (29-2) used 11 players, 10 that scored at least two points and had at least two rebounds. None played more than 21 minutes. Tate Waters was the leading scorer with 16 points.
Buford’s boys (29-2) got 33 points and 10 rebounds from Marcus Watson and 25 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots from Eric Coleman. Fayette County (26-6) stayed in the game with nine 3-pointers, six of them from Ricky Knight Jr., who scored 26.
The key stretch came in the middle of the fourth quarter with it tied at 58. Watson made two free throws, then swished a 3-pointer. Coleman added a three-point play to extend the lead to 66-58. Fayette County never got closer than four again.
“It’s something special any time that you can have both programs win a state championship,’’ Buford girls coach Gene Durden said. “That’s just something to celebrate so much. I’m just happy for the boys, happy for our girls, happy for our community because they support each kid so much.’’
Durden and Buford boys coach Eddie Martin moved up in the record books. Durden moved ahead of three others and became the second to win seven girls state championships. Only Wesleyan’s Jan Azar, with 13, has more. Martin became the fourth boys coach with at least nine state titles and the first to win multiple titles at three schools. He won three at Norcross and four at Greater Atlanta Christian.
Carver’s sweep was the school’s first. Previous state titles came in football in 2007 and boys basketball in 1971.
Carver’s girls (31-0) beat the defending champion. Spalding had eliminated Carver in the 2018 semifinals. This time, Carver scored the first eight points of the third quarter on two layups by Kionna Gaines and one each by Jailyn Shaw and Jaya Love-Hill to increase the lead to 40-26, and Spalding (256) never got closer than 11 points from there. Shaw finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds. Region 1-AAAA player of the year Olivia Cochran scored 15 points.
In the boys game, Carver’s A.J. Watts knocked down a 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining to put the Tigers ahead. Then, with 2.9 seconds left, Watts deflected the inbounds pass and denied any opportunity for a comeback. He finished with 19 points. Both teams finished 24-5.
“We came in the game as underdogs,” Watts said. “The whole time, we were saying, if we play hard, if we stay strong, we’ll win. We’re a second-half team, and we came out strong. We got a state championship.”
Stan Awtrey, Seth Ellerbee and Chip Saye contributed to this article.