Once again, the Chapel Hill High girls basketball team is headed for the 3-A state championship game.

The Tigers claimed its third consecutive 3-A Eastern Regional championship by routing Rockingham County 61-41 at Fayetteville’s Crown Coliseum on Saturday. Senior Raziyah Farrington was named the regional Most Valuable Player after scoring 20 points. Head coach Sherry Norris says point guard Tamia Eatmon is the fuel that triggers the Tigers’ offense.

“The catalyst for our team has been Tamia as far as setting tempo,” said Norris, who claimed her fourth regional championship. “She does a great job defensively of dictating the tempo of a game and by making other teams play at a faster pace than what they want to. It works to our advantage.”

Eatmon finished with nine points and seven assists, as Chapel Hill never trailed after the early minutes of the game. Chapel Hill is playing for its second consecutive state championship, but Eatmon says the feeling of winning this regional will take time. 

“It means a lot,” said Eatmon, who made the regional all-tournament team. “But honestly, it doesn’t feel real yet. I know it’s pretty hard (to win a regional) because people have underestimated us all year. Especially when we lost to Hillside and Ravenscroft, but it feels good. I feel blessed to be here again. But it hasn’t really sunk in that we’re playing for another state championship and we have another possibility to get another ring.”

The Regional MVP award is another milestone for Farrington, who became the first Chapel Hill High player ever named to the North Carolina-South Carolina All-Star game. Norris says she’s starting to rebound better, as well.

“Rebounding was one of the things that we talked about,” said Norris. “Because when Raziyah is our leading rebounder, which she was last night and she had six tonight, I had concerns about that. I talked to our big people about how they had to do a better job.”

Chapel Hill will play for the state championship against Hickory, the team they defeated last year for the state title, next Saturday at Carmichael Arena. Tipoff is at 5. You can hear the game on 97.9 FM WCHL.