Lady Jackets drop tournament opener

♦ The Tiger Christmas Tournament in Adairsville features a 35-second shot clock for its games

The Calhoun High School girls basketball team got off to a rough start Wednesday afternoon at the Tiger Christmas Classic tournament in Adairsville.

North Murray got things rolling in the second quarter and never looked back in toppling the Lady Jackets, 56-48, in both teams’ first game in the event.

The loss meant that the Yellow

Jackets had to come back Thursday morning to face former Region 7-5A colleague Blessed Trinity, after the Lady Titans lost their opener, 38-36, to Sonoraville to begin a full day of play. And the Lady Jackets bounced back in fine fashion from that loss, defeating the Lady Titans, 50-37, for their second win over the private school that is now in the 6A division.

For the Lady Jackets, they were in a nip-and-tuck affair at the end of the first period Wednesday against

North Murray, but went ice cold like the weather we just endured through the first six minutes of the second period, allowing North Murray to build a lead they would never lose.

The Tiger Christmas Classic tournament is unique in that teams played with a shot clock. Teams had 35 seconds to shoot or it was a turnover and the clock was perched right behind each basket so the players could see it.

Calhoun did force the Mountaineers into a couple of shot clock violations, which caused everybody to stop for a second (spectators included) before they realized the buzzer that went off was the shot clock. And once, Calhoun senior Lauren Watson nailed a short two that beat the buzzer and everybody stopped before the referee threw the ball to the in-bounding player and reminded everyone to play on.

The teams traded baskets to start the game before the team in green took a four-point lead at 14-10 into the final minute of the first quarter. A Watson basket cut the gap to 14-12 but the Region 6-3A team answered to make it 16-12.

A pair of foul shots by sophomore Sa’Niah Dorsey, who had six points in the quarter, with one tick left on the first quarter clock sliced Calhoun’s deficit to 16-14 at the end of one quarter.

Sophomore Kat Atha also had four points in the period for the Lady Jackets on two made shots.

North Murray made two free throws 25 seconds into the second stanza to push the lead to four but a minute later Calhoun sophomore post player Allie Duke dropped in a pair of foul shots to whittle the lead back to two at 18-16.

From there, working off the elbow offensively, and using a lot of give-and-go with a pass and then a hand-off back to the passer who cut through the lane, the Mountaineers

The Blue Tide hit a three-pointer to start the game before Calhoun sophomore Makaden Griffin put back a miss to get the Yellow Jackets on the board two minutes in. Over the next two minutes, the Tide went on an 8-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game.

From that point on, though it was all Calhoun as the Yellow Jackets would outscore the Blue Tide, 87-53, the rest of the way.

Down by nine, the Jackets would make the next eight points with a free throw by junior guard Daniel Streete, two from Faulkner and two more from Griffin before a Landon Chattam lay-up off a long feed from Faulkner and another Streete foul shot closed them within a point at 11-10.

The Tide hit the game’s next two shots to go in front 15-10 before Calhoun came back to take the lead for good, closing the quarter with a 10-4 run.

Streete and Faulkner each made two free throws to make it 15-14 and a Streete threepointer put them up for the first time at 17-15 with 90 seconds left in the quarter.

The Tide tied it at 17 at the one-minute mark, but Faulkner was fouled on a putback and made the foul shot for a 20-17 Calhoun lead with 40.9 remaining.

A Long County layup just before the first quarter horn left Calhoun up 20-19 after one period of play.

The Jackets would take the game over in the second period with Faulkner scoring 16 points in a 27-point frame that gave them a 15-point lead at halftime.

Faulkner scored the first five points of the

second period for a 25-19 lead before a Long County layup cut it to 25-21.The lead was still four at 27-23 before Calhoun went on a 6-0 run for its first double-figure lead of the game.

Faulkner scored on an offensive rebound and Chattam made two free throws and a breakaway layup, giving the Jackets a 33-23 lead with five minutes to go until halftime.

The teams traded baskets over the next four minutes and Calhoun was still ahead by 10 at 42-32 before Faulkner scored the last five points of the half on a layup and then a 3-pointer from the top of the key with two seconds left to give the winners their biggest lead of the game at 47-32.

An Andrew Purdy shot from long distance 90 seconds into the third period would bolster their advantage to 19 at 52-33 before the Blue Tide’s frustration of being dominated inside began to show as they were hit with two technical fouls after a spinning shot by Faulkner near the rim left a couple of Blue Tide bodies on the floor. When the foul call went against them, they didn’t hide their disgust with first their head coach and then a player getting T’d up.

Calhoun would take its first 20-point lead of the day at 64-44 on a Chattam putback with just under three minutes showing in the third.

A layup by senior guard Caden Schild put them up by 24 points at 70-46 with under a minute left. The Tide would narrow the gap to 20 at 70-50 by scoring the final four points of the quarter.

Faulkner, who didn’t play in the fourth quarter, finished the game with 38 points and unofficially 15 rebounds. After him, Chattam and Purdy had eight points apiece for the Yellow Jackets.

The Yellow Jackets ended the game at 5-5 on the year.