Columbia won its fourth state championship in the past six years with Saturday night’s 56-37 victory against Butler in the Class AAA finals in Macon.
The Eagles were led by 22 points from 5-foot-8 point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen, who coach Phil McCrary refers to as a “50-year-old midget” because of his wisdom and leadership as a sophomore.
Butler was trying to win its first state championship since 1966 and was led by Chris Washington, who fouled out with 3:45 left in the fourth quarter after scoring 14 points.
Columbia (30-3) could have made the margin of victory much larger, but struggled mightily with its free throws (14 of 33). However, the Eagles put away the game with an 8-0 run during the middle of the fourth quarter.
It was the second consecutive state championship for the DeKalb County school.
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