Saturday, March 7, at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, Christ Church defeated the defending champions, Latta High School, in the girls basketball 1A state championship game 61-45.

Behind the leadership of head coach Toni Leopard, junior guard Shayla Bennett and lone senior forward Sarah Robinson, Christ Church won its third girls basketball state championship in school history – the previous two coming in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

The girls have been beating teams by this large of a margin all season long, as they finished the year on a 20 game win streak with a record of 27-2. However, the Cavaliers did not have the typical scoring performance out of their star and 1A player of the year, Shayla Bennett, in the championship game. Bennett finished the game with 21 points, low by her standards, and, as a result, other players such as Lawren Cook, Abbie Posta and Sarah Robinson had to step up their game. Cook finished with 14 points; Posta and Robinson both had 10 points. Although, many of these points did come off an assist from Bennett as she had a game-high 5 assists.

Christ Church’s defense was crucial to their victory as well. The Cavaliers forced 11 turnovers and only allowed Latta to shot 35% from the field. Cook led the team with 3 steals.

The Cavaliers never felt threatened by Latta as they controlled the game from the opening tip. Christ Church had an 11 point lead at the end of the first quarter and were able to keep the lead for the remainder of the game.