The Mathews High School boys’ varsity basketball team advanced to the Region 1A East tournament following a second-place finish in last week’s Conference 42 tournament.

Mathews was scheduled to travel to Altavista last night to face the Colonels in the regional quarterfinal matchup. To get to that point, the Devils defeated Central-Lunenburg, 59-46, in last Thursday’s conference semifinals before falling the following night to West Point for the conference title.

The top two teams in each conference advance to regional play, which made last Thursday night’s game against Central so important. The Devils knew what was at stake for their regional bid and came out firing, taking a 17-6 first-quarter advantage. Lunenburg brought the game to a tie at halftime. The last half was your classic back-and-forth, and free-throw shooting eventually made the difference as the Devils pulled out a 13-point win.

This win not only gave the Devils an automatic bid into t...