Jackets struggle in second half to suffer region loss to Hiram
Calhoun started the game strong on Friday night, but, playing shorthanded and with multiple players in foul trouble, they seemed to run out of gas in the second half while Hiram grabbed the momentum and rode it to a region road victory.
The Jackets got out to a quick start, leading 15-5 after the first quarter, but Hiram started to narrow the gap to cut the deficit to one at the half before dominating much of the final two quarters to rally for a 62-48 win in 7-AAAAA play on Friday at The Hive.
Calhoun (9-9, 3-3 in 7-AAAAA) was without leading scorer Dylan Faulkner in the loss, forcing several others to pick up the slack in the paint, and the Hornets used their long, athletic and deep front court to rack up points and fouls in bunches. Calhoun head coach Vince Layson said he was pleased with the way his team attacked the game early, but with the foul trouble and lack of depth off the bench, the game just didn’t go in their favor late.
“Most of what happened in the second half was just us having to play differently with our bigs in foul trouble,” said Layson. “We did some not-so-fundamentallysound things too, and once we had some guys foul out, we just couldn’t keep up. I thought we started the game well, but we just ran out of energy a little bit in the third quarter. We couldn’t sustain what we need to for four quarters tonight, and Hiram is a good team that takes advantage of stuff like that.”
Calhoun held a slim 22-21 lead at the
half, but Hiram (10-7, 5-1 in 7-AAAAA) came out focused and aggressive in the third quarter, which proved to be the period that turned the game around. The visitors outscored the Jackets 29-12 total in the quarter to grab the momentum and never give it back. The Hornets built a 5034 lead going to the fourth and led by as many as 20 in the final quarter to put it completely out of reach.
Javores Boyd, Jr. led Hiram with 17 points in the contest, many coming in the paint and at the free throw line. Big man Jackson Prince also had a strong night with 16 points. The pair combined for 18 points in the third quarter alone.
Jayden Clark was the third Hornet in double figures with 10. Kevin Hull added nine as well, all coming on his three made 3s in the third quarter.
Calhoun’s top scorer in the contest was Peyton Law with 14 points. Blaze Hammett added nine, and Daniel Streete.
Layson said Faulkner’s presence was definitely missed on both ends of the court, and his team’s layoff this week between games due to a cancelation on Tuesday against Blessed Trinity did not come at an ideal time either.
“That’s kind of the way this season is going to go with the crazy times…you never know when you’re going to be missing someone because of quarantining or an injury,” said Layson. “It was a good opportunity for other guys to step up, but we miss Dylan offensively and defensively. Offensively, he’s such a good scorer and rebounder, a double-double guy. But defensively, we really miss him inside. Hiram had mismatches all over the court tonight with their size so it was big not having him.
“It was bad timing with the cancelation on Tuesday too. We had been playing good ball lately, and that kind of threw us out of rhythm. It really flared up and showed itself tonight.”
The Jackets will try to bounce back on Tuesday when they host Woodland for another 7-AAAAA matchup at 7:30 p.m.
before a tough road trip to Cass on Friday. Layson said there is no time to let Friday’s loss linger with the region schedule heading down the stretch and each game becoming more and more important.
“I told them in the locker room after the game that you have to erase this from your memory,” said Layson. “We had a winning streak snapped tonight. We just have to start another one on Tuesday. We’ve got to take one game at a time. Hopefully we can get a win on Tuesday against Woodland and get some momentum going again before we head to Cass on Friday.”
In the Calhoun-Hiram girls game earlier on Friday night:
Hiram Girls 40 — Calhoun 24
It was a tough night offensively for the Lady Jackets, especially in the second half as they just couldn’t get shots to fall in a region loss at home.
Calhoun (11-9, 3-3 in 7-AAAAA) trailed just 2519 at the half, but Hiram clamped down on defense in the final two quarters, limiting the Lady Jackets to five points in the third and fourth to pull away for the road victory.
The Lady Jackets failed to have a scorer reach double figures as Ashlyn Brzozoski had the top total with eight on the night. Maggie McBrayer added seven points.
For Hiram (11-3, 4-1 in 7-AAAAA), Camryn O’Neil led the way with a game-high 11 points. Imani Smith and K’la Reddick each added nine in the winning effort.