Yellow Jackets begin 7-5A play with Cass
With the hope the rollercoaster ride will stay at a steady pace, the Calhoun High School basketball team has begun Region 7-5A play.
The Yellow Jackets hosted Cass Tuesday night, looking to get their league schedule off to a good start and put what has been an up-anddown ride the first couple of months a turbulence-free trip the next few weeks.
The game Tuesday night (details were not available at press time) was the Jackets’ first one in the friendly confines of The Hive in nearly a month and that is one good thing about the Region schedule — they will play at least five home games over the next month as they continue to try and make themselves the best they can be when the Region postseason tournament starts in about a month.
The good news it seems for the Yellow Jackets thus far is that everybody in the solid Region 7-5A has struggled thus far to find their footing with only one team — Hiram — entering league play above .500 and at that, the Hornets, who are the two-time defending Region champs, haven’t exactly been exactly setting the world on fire themselves, standing 7-6 overall heading into Tuesday night’s first set of games. (Details of the Calhoun-Cass game was not available at press time).
For Calhoun, the Jackets were hoping to not show any signs of rust Tuesday night, having been off for over 10 days with their last game being played Saturday, Dec. 30 when they knocked off Adairsville, 75-52, in the third place game of the Adairsville Christmas Classic tournament in Bartow County.
It was definitely one of the team’s top offensive efforts of the year as it was just the third time in their first 11 games they have scored 75 points or more. They had four players in double figures and put the game away with a big second quarter, holding a commanding 20-point lead or more through the entire second half.
Cass came into Tuesday night’s game with two players averaging in double figures through the first two months of the season with small forward Jakai Baldwin averaging 11.6 points per game while guard Jayden Foster was averaging 10.6, putting them among the top point-getters
Calhoun had two of the top scorers in the Region as well with junior forward Emaree Winston averaging 13 points per outing while senior forward Landon Chattam, who has verbally committed to play college basketball at LaGrange, is averaging 12.7 points per game and those two have both been a pair of go-to options the Jackets have when they need a bucket. Junior Jace Johns has also been scoring over 10 points a night, meaning coach Vince Layson’s team has a few different guys who can score.
In addition, senior guards Daniel Street and Bryant Arnold have also had some big games so the Jackets are hoping they can get the inconsistencies out of the way as they are once again hunting for a state playoff spot in the GHSA 5A bracket.
Going into the Cass game, Winston also led the team in rebounding per game with an average of 11.5 in each contest. After that, there is a big dropoff in rebounding average, but still a lot of production with Johns and sophomore forward Blake Hammett pulling down nearly six missed shots per contest.
While Hiram was the only team entering the Region schedule above .500 both Woodland, which is where Calhoun will go Friday night, and the Yellow Jackets are close with Woodland going into Tuesday’s night contest at Hiram with a 6-7 mark on the year.
Calhoun stood 5-6 as they started play against Cass, which went 4-7 through the non-Region schedule and sits alone in fourth place in the standings. Both Cartersville and Dalton were 4-9 on the year although Cartersville was 4-4 in its last five games after an 0-5 start to the year.
Besides the Cass-Calhoun game Tuesday night, the other league first games had Woodland at Hiram and Cartersville at Dalton before everybody is back at it for Region Game Two Friday evening.
Calhoun was scheduled to play Chattooga Monday night at the Hive, but that game was changed to Monday, Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
The Cass game for the Yellow Jackets began what will
be a busy week with three games because after Cass and then the trip to Woodland Friday night, they play
again Saturday in a non-Region game when they go to Allatoona to face the Buccaneers in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.