Jackets drop second straight in Region play
The Calhoun High School basketball team dropped its second straight Region 7-5A game Wednesday night, falling 71-65 to Cartersville in the Purple Hurricanes’ gymnasium.
The loss dropped them to 1-2 in the league and into fourth place in the six-team division, but again, they didn’t have a lot of time to fret over, returning right to action Thursday night with a 7-5A encounter at Hiram, which are the defending champions and were off to a fast start in league play.
That game was originally scheduled to be played Friday night, but with another cold blast of air expected to hit again this weekend, it was reported the game was moved up 24 hours to avoid any problems. (Details of the Calhoun-Hiram game were not available at press time).
The game at Cartersville, which was originally scheduled to be played Tuesday before school was canceled, was a close one all the way before the Purple Hurricanes were able to secure the victory with a 20-point fourth quarter.
Calhoun trailed just 51-49 to start the final period, but seemed to get the short end of some tough calls in the final minutes with the home team shooting 20 foul shots in the last eight minutes and the Yellow Jackets going to the line just twice.
In fact, the Jackets scored seven buckets, including a three, in the fourth period while the Hurricanes made just two shots from the field, but Calhoun splits its two free throws and Cartersville connected on 15 of its 20 attempts to get the win.
Junior guard Kaden Brown was 5-of-6 from the stripe and senior Ced McClinic was 5-of-7 to lead the onslaught in the fourth quarter as the Jackets seemed to get defensive stops only to have Cartersville going to the free throw line. Those players were two of the four that reached doubledigit scoring for the Purple Canes.
Calhoun senior guard Landon Chattam, who led all scorers with 23 points, got the Yellow Jackets off to a good start with 11 of those in the first quarter as the teams were deadlocked at 17 at the end of one.
Chattam hit three 3-pointers and
105 points in their first three Region 7-4A games, really tightened things up from there. They outscored the Phoenix, 13-9, in the third to make it a one-point game with Sonoraville in front, 4039 heading into the fourth.
And in that last quarter, both teams were putting the defense down as Central only put 10 points on the board, but the Phoenix could only muster four points on a pair of made field goals to fall to 1-1 in the Region.
Last Friday night, though, they went back above .500 in the league with a nice win over a much-improved Cedartown team that didn't win a game last year. It was a close game all the way with the Phoenix making the big plays in the final minutes to get the job done.
That had the entire Region looking to end the first half strong this week with good showings on Tuesday and Friday, but Mother Nature intervened regarding Tuesday and now the Phoenix have entered the weekend with two-games-in-twodays. (Details of those two
Sonoraville games were not available at press time).
And that may be okay for head coach Brent Mashburn's team because they have used their depth to beat a lot of teams this year. They have a lot of guys that can do different things and they hoping to keep using that to their advantage going forward.
Depending on what happens this weekend, it appears Sonoraville, Central, Northwest Whitfield and Heritage are the top four playoff contenders in the league with Central winning its first three and the others all winning two of their first three.
That also put Southeast Whitfield and Cedartown at 0-3 in the league and already two games behind fourth place in the standings.
Going into their Friday night game at Heritage, Sonoraville owned a solid 12-6 record overall and the Generals were 9-8.
Central, with 15, owned the most wins of anyone in the Region and the Lions had lost just twice. After that, Northwest Whitfield was 13-4 and then the Phoenix were just a game behind with a dozen triumphs.