The Champion Lady Chargers knocked off the undefeated Salem Lady Lions 31-22 to win the DCSD MS Girls' Basketball Championship.

The Champion Lady Chargers knocked off the undefeated Salem Lady Lions 31-22 to win the DCSD MS Girls’ Basketball Championship.

A year the Champion Lady Chargers were undefeated entering the DeKalb County Middle School Basketball Championship game and lost to the Salem Lady Lions in a hard-fought battle at Miller Grove High School.

One year later and Salem entered the game 16-0 with a win over Champion during the regular season while Champion entered at 14-2 and knocked off Salem 31-22 using a tough defense and timely scoring to claim their fifth championship title since 2013 that includes seven trips to the championship game.

The two teams battled to a 6-6 tie at the end of the first quarter and Champion took the lead for good at 8-6 with 3:42 to play in the first half on a Lailah Cox layup to make it 8-6.

A 7-0 run that included baskets by Charmaine Owens, Jhia Primrose and Kamaya Rivers-Child helped Champion to go up 15-8 in at the half as the defense limited Salem to just two made free throws in the second quarter.

Another 7-0 run in the middle of third quarter pushed the advantage to 24-10 with 1:45 remaining in the third quarter. Owens again started the run with a drive to the basket and was followed by a three-pointer by Sanaa Stanton and a steal and layup by Rivers-Child.

Champion's Charmaine Owens (2) hustles back to defend against Salem's Shanya Heath (1). Owens was named the Most Valuable Player in Champions title victory.

Champion’s Charmaine Owens (2) hustles back to defend against Salem’s Shanya Heath (1). Owens was named the Most Valuable Player in Champions title victory.

Salem closed the gap to 24-15 as Shanya Heath hit a pair of free throws with 13 seconds left in the quarter.

Heath would score five points in the first 2:16 of the fourth quarter to close the deficit to 26-20 with 3:44 remaining in the game.

Cox scored on a layup aided by a nice pass from Owens and Kimari Barnett hit one of two free throws to extend the lead back out to 29-20.

Heath would hit two free throws with 1:01 to play to cut it back to 29-22 and had a big hustle play on the following inbounds to stop a snowbird play on a long inbounds pass by Champion with a block. Unfortunately, the blocked shot fell into the hands of Cox who rebounded it and put it back in to make it 31-22.

Charmaine Owens finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds long with several steals and assists to be named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Kamaya Rivers-Child led the team with 11 points while Jhia Primrose added 10 rebounds (2 points, 2 blocks) and Sanaa Stanton 14 rebounds (3 points).

Salem was led by Shanya Heath with a game-high 19 points and added 12 rebounds. Mya Perry finished the day with 12 rebounds (3 points).