Calhoun gets clutch win in classic Festival game
Jackets down Rome in double-OT to advance to tournament finals
— There’s been some incredible games over the long history of the Rome NewsTribune Holiday Festival, and Tuesday night’s boys semifinal between Calhoun and Rome will now be forever remembered among them on the list if not right up near the top.
The two teams battled for four quarters, but that wasn’t enough. One overtime session wasn’t even enough. Thanks to some extremely clutch plays by Calhoun, including nine points in the two extra sessions combined by Malik Lawrence, the Jackets pulled out a 67-66 victory to advance. And that’s not to say Rome didn’t make their share of clutch plays themselves… the defending champion Jackets just had a few more.
Lawrence hit a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left in the first overtime to tie the game at 58-58 and force the second. He then made 3-of-4 free throws in the final 12 seconds of double-overtime to put the game away. There were several other game-saving plays as well from the Jackets (8-0), including an offensive rebound and put back apiece from Porter Law and Kaylan Aker in the final minutes of the second overtime just to name a few.
“We definitely displayed our will to win tonight,“said Calhoun coach Vince Layson. “The kids never backed down, never gave up and eventually the ball bounced our way. We brought incredible effort defensively, and I was proud of them for never getting down. I told them before the game that Rome was almost a mirror image of us as far as athleticism, will to win and type of team, and playing a team in a game like that early on will only make us better. Our guys just refused to let us lose that game.“
The Jackets moved onto the championship game on Thursday night at Berry College against Darlington. They will try to win the Gold Ball Trophy for the second straight year. (For details on that game, see Wednesday’s Calhoun Times.)
Rome (2-2) fell into the consolation bracket and faced Coosa on Wednesday at Berry College.
Lawrence led Calhoun with 20 points on the night. Chapin Rierson added 19 of his own before fouling out in the second overtime, and Aker made some big buckets as well with 17 points.
Rome, who trailed 13-9 after the first quarter and 25-20 at the half, was led by Jordan Watkins and Nehemiah Reddish with 19 points apiece. The Wolves trailed for almost the entire game but never let the Jackets get out to too big of a lead and seemed to come up with big shots each time the momentum was shifting the other way. KJ Brown and Adam Anderson each contributed eight points.
“It was a fun night and our kids did a great job,“said Rome coach Milt Travis of the game. “We stepped up in the second half and fought, and it was against a really good opponent. It was a great game to be a part of, and our kids don’t really have anything to be down about. This is a process for us only having five practices together and this being our fourth game. I’m proud of what my kids did tonight.“
Rome trailed by four after a 3-pointer by Lawrence with 1:50 to play in the fourth quarter, but Jordan Watkins hit two big shots to tie the game, the last one coming with 47.5 seconds to play in regulation. Each team had a good look at the basket in the final seconds of the period but both came up empty.
Both teams led by as many as three points in the first overtime before Lawrence’s game-extending three at the end of the period.
Layson said now his team can look ahead to Thursday when they will try to defend their Festival title, which was one of their goals coming into the season.
“We came into this tournament and knew it had to be baby steps, taking one game at a time and one possession at a time,“said Layson. “But now that finish line is in sight, and we want to finish strong in the championship game.“