DeKalb County School District

Brandon Morris, a Georgia signee, drove to the basket with 3:13 to play and drew Goodwin's fifth foul. Morris hit two free throws to give Miller Grove a 50-49 lead it would not relinquish.

The Wolverines would go on to hit 15 of 20 from the line in the final three minutes, including 5 of 6 by Christian Houston and 6 of 8 by Colvin to nail down the four-peat.

Miller Grove's McDonald's All-American Tony Parker (21 points, 13 rebounds) hit for 16 points in the first half including four second quarter dunks to give the Wolverines a 32-29 halftime lead.

Southwest DeKalb's Price hit for the Panthers' first eight points to get Southwest out to an 8-6 lead in the first quarter. A baby hook by Parker and a dunk by Brandon Morris on a break away put Miller Grove up 10-8.

Southwest freshman Ravion Bell had a strong, rim bending dunk to tie the game at 10 before a Tony Evans basket and two Parker free throws gave Miller Grove a 14-10 lead after one quarter of play.

The Miller Grove victory not only secured DeKalb County's first four-peat, but gave the school a sweep of the 2012 Class AAAA state titles following the Lady Wolverine's victory in the girls' game earlier in the day.

The Wolverine's four-peat was the fourth in state history and the first since Westover in 1990-93. Lanier accomplished the feat twice (1925-28 and 1938-40.

It was also the fourth sweep in Class AAAA for DeKalb in the past five seasons including Columbia (boys) and Southwest DeKalb (girls) in 2008 with Miller Grove (boys) and Southwest DeKalb (girls) in 2009 and 2010.

DeKalb also swept the AAA state titles in 2007 (Dunwoody boys, Avondale girls) and 2010 (Columbia won both).

Senior Kadejah Vaughn ended her career in grand fashion scoring 17 points and dominating under the rim with 18 rebounds.

Vaughn scored 15 first half points to lead Columbia to a 33-16 advantage at the half. Vaughn had three points in the first quarter to go with five from Miah Spencer as the Lady Eagles built a 14-9 lead.

Vaughn went to work underneath in the second period scoring 12 more points on offensive rebounds and a pair of crisp passes from a driving Zuri Frost as the lead continued to build.

Vaughn also drew Gatorade Player of the Year Allisha Gray's third foul with 5:30 left in the first half sending her to the bench for the rest of the half.

Gray returned in the second half to score 11 of her 16 points, but it was too late for the Lady Hawks as Columbia continued to hold the lead at 14 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Eagles (24-5) went on a 13-0 run to start the fourth quarter to put the game away as five different players scored.

Gray ended the Washington County (31-1) drought with a three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining and Columbia up 55-31.

Miah Spencer, who handled the tough job of defending Gray for much of the night, hit for 15 points for Columbia in the win.

The win was Columbia's second state title in three seasons and the third of four for DeKalb County this season.

Columbia uses charity stripe to put away Charles Drew for Class AAA state title

The Columbia Eagles won their third consecutive
Class AAA state title with a victory over Charles
Drew

Winning three consecutive state championships is never easy and despite the final 19-point margin it was not easy for the Eagles (31-1) who had an 18-point (47-29) lead dwindle to just six at 49-43 with 4:43 to play in the game.

Derrick Frye and Cory Graves fueled the No. 4 ranked Titans' rally with four points each including Graves' basket to trim the lead to the closest it had been since Columbia took a 16-14 lead on a Nate Mason three-pointer in the second quarter.

The Eagles put the basketball in the hands of junior point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen, the 2011 Class AAA Player of the Year, forcing the Titans to chase him and foul to try to get the ball back.

Shamsid-Deen responded by hitting seven of eight free throw in the final 4:36 while the Titans (25-5) were having to shoot desperate shots in an effort to overcome the free-throw shooting. Shamsid-Deen also rebounded his only miss from the line in the stretch and the play ended with Kiar Crouch hitting a pair of free throws.

The Titans scored only three points in the final 3:58 of the game as the Eagles pulled away again to salt away their three-peat.

Mason's three-pointer with 6:15 to play in the first half seemed to light a fire under the Eagles who had struggled with turnovers despite dominating the glass during the first half.

The three spurred the Eagles on a 12-2 run to take a 25-16 lead that included four points by Jarmal Reid and ended on a three by Tahj Shamsid-Deen on the way to a 32-22 halftime lead.

Shamsid-Deen finished with a game-high 17 points and was joined in double figures by Jhaustin Thomas with 10. Seniors Damian Goodwin and Chris Horton added 10 rebounds each in the game they dominated on the boards 40-18.

The state title win was the Eagles' fifth title in the past seven seasons and the 23rd for DeKalb in a state title streak dating back to 2002, including 10 in the past three seasons.

The Columbia Eagles completed the 2012 season just as they started it, as the No. 1 team following their 65-46 win over the Charles Drew Titans in the Class AAA state championship game at the Macon Centreplex on Saturday night to complete the school's second sweep of the Class AAA titles in three seasons.

He has played a big role in the middle for the Wolverines during the team's three-year run as the Class AAAA state champions (2009-11) and has them ready to play on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. for the opportunity to earn another state berth.

Cedar Grove's Dion Glover was selected in 1997 to round out the four guys chosen. Redan's Portia Phillips is the only girl from the DeKalb County School District to be chosen earning the honor in 2006.

The only other DeKalb County selections were Melvin Howard (Decatur) in 1983 and Kelly Cain (St. Pius X) in 2007.

Chris Horton (35) goes for a block

Shamsid-Deen repeated his rare triple-double against Towers with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Columbia played its final regular season home game on Friday, February 3 against McNair and it would become a memorable night for Shamsid-Deen as his nine points put him over 1,000 career points in just his junior season. He has 1,011 points for an 11.4 average in 89 games.

He also could be edging closer to a rare career double-double of 1,000 points and 1,000 assists as his 9.7 assist average this season has him at 778 for his career with well over 200 assists per year. He has 15 games this season with 10 or more assists including three games with 12 assists.

DeKalb County began keeping blocked shots stats in 2008 and Horton now stands at fifth in blocks for a season with 130 (5.7 per game). Horton should easily move into third needing just 9 blocks heading into the final regular season game at Cedar Grove and the Region 5-AAA Tournament at Columbia next week. Redan's Yannick Crowder holds the season record with 190 in 2008.

Horton has 14 games with five or more blocks in 2012 with a high of 12.

Columbia guard Zuri Frost who plays for her mother, Chantay Frost, entered the 2012 season needing 115 points to reach the 1,000 point plateau. Her 1,000th point came during a 15 point game in a 68-14 win over Bacon Collier of Florida in the Naples (FL) Daily News Shootout Tournament on December 29.

Frost has scored over 300 points the past two seasons and is just 106 points away this season. She has 431 career steals for a 4.0 per game average and 300 assists for a 2.8 career average.

Miller Grove's Tony Parker along with Southwest DeKalb's one-two punch of Jordan Price and William Goodwin all went over the 1,000 point mark in 2011 as juniors and all three are over 1,400 career points. Parker has played a key role in the Wolverine's three-year run as Class AAAA state champions.

Price is climbing towards the 1,700 level with a career total of 1,682 points while also averaging 3.7 assists (373) for his career.

Parker is just four points shy of 1,500 at 1,496 for his career and is closing in on 1,200 career rebounds at 1,192 (10.7 per game).

Goodwin just recently went over the 1,400 mark and has 1,406 (15.1 per game) and is closing in on 1,000 rebounds with 972 (10.5 per game). He also has a career average of 2.5 assists per game.

Stone Mountain's Chara Reeves and Columbia junior point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen are poised to eclipse the 1,000 point barrier.

Reeves stands at 938 points through 12 games. She has also added 452 rebounds and career averages of 2.6 steals (219) and 2.2 assists (182).

Shamsid-Deen is at 943 career points, a 51.3 shooting percentage from the field, 75 percent from the free throw line and 711 career assists for an 8.7 average over 82 games. Columbia has won back-to-back Class AAA state titles with Shamsid-Deen being the floor leader from his point guard position.