MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – Bringing a Blue Map home from the state basketball tournament is no easy task.

It’s a huge accomplishment for the whole team but sometimes we see individual players shine on the big stage. That’s exactly what we saw from Buckhorn’s Caleb Holt in the Final Four and 6A championship game.

For that, Holt earned the Hiley Mazda Key Athlete of the Week!

The Bucks won their first state title since 1995 and freshman sensation Caleb Holt was a huge reason why.

In Buckhorn’s Final Four matchup against McGill Toolen, Holt helped bring the Bucks back from a double-digit deficit, putting up 33 points and 14 rebounds.

Then in the state finals against Mountain Brook, he didn’t skip a beat. He showed up on the state’s biggest stage and dropped 32 and 18 boards to help lead Buckhorn to victory.

“It was really just my teammates trusting me when we got down, I think 12,” Holt said. “So I really think it was just them trusting me and trusting me with the ball and them trusting me that I’d find them at the right moments. So it was just all clicking at the right time.”

“On that stage to play with such poise and play so hard I thought Caleb and the group were just phenomenal to be able to do it again on that stage,” said Buckhorn boys Head Coach Patrick Harding. “Of course, Caleb is our catalyst. In that regard, it was just really impressive to see how hard he played and how well he played for those two games.”

As a state champion and state tournament MVP, Holt’s name will go down in Buckhorn history but Caleb will be the first to tell you that winning the state title was a team effort.

“It was really just we’ve gotta win these games we came too far we didn’t work this hard to lose at this moment so I think our coach and our teammates we prepared very good for big moments like that,” said Holt.

We are always looking for standout student-athletes in the Tennessee Valley to feature! If you have a high-school-aged athlete that you would like to nominate for Hiley Mazda Key Athlete of the week, you can email olivia.whitmire@whnt.com, claudia.chakamian@whnt.com or sports@whnt.com.