By Jacob Vinson
The Cookeville Cavaliers won their first district title since 2012 Tuesday night as they beat LaVergne 49-36 for the 7-4A crown.
“This is one step,” said Cookeville head coach Joshua Heard. “This is one of our goals that we wanted to get, and to do it in an undefeated manner is great. I’m happy for our guys, but even they already said that this is just one of them.”
Cookeville started out slow offensively as they trailed 11-3 to the hosting Wolverines early, but a 6-0 run at the end of the first cut the LaVergne lead to 2 at 11-9.
The Cavs struggled to find their stride in the second as they trailed by as many as 7 points in the frame, but a three before the half from Colin Ayers tied the game at 22 after the Cavs trailed for the entirety of the first half.
The second half was all Cavaliers as they came out of the locker room with a 13-2 run and took a 40-28 lead into the final frame.
“We came in the locker room at halftime and our seniors started talking,” said Heard. “Colin Ayers took over in that third quarter and those other seniors were playing big. We rebounded the ball and started getting stops.”
A three by Josh Heard to open the fourth quarter extended their lead to 15 and the Cavs never looked back as they won 49-36.
Cookeville senior point guard Colin Ayers was named the tournament MVP and poured in 15 points in the win. Josh Heard, Jalen Heard and Jaren Davis were also named to the All-Tournament team.
Next up, the Cavaliers will host Rockvale Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Region 4-4A quarterfinals.
