Jackets win on the road, fall at home to PC
The Calhoun High School basketball team split a pair of games this week.
Playing twice in a span of about 27 hours due to rescheduling because of the football team playing in the 5A state championship game Saturday afternoon, the Yellow Jackets began the week Tuesday night by winning at Chattooga, 66-63, before a late rally came up short Wednesday night with a tough 72-70 loss to Paulding County at The Hive.
In the road win over Chattooga, the Jackets were down 53-46 to start the fourth period, but outscored the Indians, 20-10, in the final eight minutes to finish a nice comeback.
Junior 6-foot-8 postman Dylan Faulkner, who finished the night with 32 points and continues his torrid start to the season, basically took the game over at the end, scoring 12 points of his team’s 20 in the fourth period and outscoring the home team all by himself.
Jaylen Harris added four more points in the quarter to lift Calhoun to 2-1 on the year.
Faulkner had nine in the first quarter as the teams were tied at 15 heading into the second.
The Jackets took a 29-25 lead at the intermission by topping the Indians, 14-10, in that second period.
Faulkner had seven points in the second and guard Caden Schild added four more to put the visitors in front.
Chattooga revved up its offense in the third period, racking up 28 points on the strength of six three-point shots to outscore the Indians 28-17 in the quarter and go up by six with eight minutes left.
Guard Daniel Streete had eight of his 12 points, including a pair of three’s from beyond the arch, in the quarter and Matthew Streete added another trey to highlight their offense in the third.
But in the fourth, Calhoun’s defense began to take hold and the Indians had just four buckets down the homestretch as the Jackets rallied for the big win.
Faulkner and Daniel Streete were the only Calhoun players in double figures.
Chattooga had four players in double digit scoring with two players notching a dozen points while another had 11 and one more player had 10.
Then 24 hours later in a real backand-forth game, the Yellow Jackets fell behind by nearly 20 points late in the third period to Paulding County before a final push came up just short.
The Patriots were playing their 10th game of the season and looked a little more cohesive down the stretch than a Calhoun team playing just its fourth game and still missing a few players from the football team.
With their four-guard offense, the Patriots just kept pushing the ball to the basket and despite Faulkner unofficially blocking nine shots, they were relentless attacking the basket.
Calhoun got off to a good start, taking a 12-5 lead on back-to-back dunks by Faulkner and the second of which was a highlight-reel type. The Jackets put up a shot that bounced off the right side of the rim and Faulkner, working from the left block, came flying out of nowhere, grabbing the ball high in the air and then throwing it back down as the crowd roared.
But Paulding County responded by going on a 13-4 run to take the lead at 18-16 with 90 seconds to go in the first quarter and they would never trail the rest of the game.
The Patriots would add four more points to close the quarter and then began the second stanza with four more to take its first 10-point lead at 26-16 with seven minutes left until halftime.
The Jackets would close the gap to three points a couple of times at 2926 and 32-29 before the Patriots got their running game going again to stretch the lead back to nine at 42-33. Calhoun was down 42-36 at the half. Paulding County began the third period with a 13-0 scoring spree that saw their lead balloon to 19 at 55-36 as the home team was cold to start the second half, going four minutes without scoring.
From there, the hosts came back with an 13-4 run of their own, closing the gap to 59-49 after three quarters.
They began the fourth with all the
momentum on their side as guard Caden Schild made a foul shot, Faulkner made a lay-in, and then Harris, who kept leaving the game with an ankle injury, knocked down a long trey, bringing Calhoun within six at 61-55 with 7:03 showing on the clock.
A Faulkner layup two minutes later as Calhoun’s trap defense began forcing turnovers pulled them to within four at 61-57 with under five minutes to play.
PC scored to get the lead back to six but Schild made a layup and then Faulkner split a pair of charity tosses and it was 63-60 with 2:03 showing.
A PC short shot got the bulge back to five, but Schild hit a trey from the right wing and Calhoun was down just two with under 80 seconds to play.
The Jackets then got a steal and had a chance to tie it, but missed a shot before calling timeout when they got the rebound.
A Harris lay-in out of the timeout tied the game at 65, but the Patriots hit a jumper to regain the lead at 67-65.
Streete made a layup to tie it at 67, but the Patriots coolly dropped in two
foul shots to go up, 69-67 with 34.4 seconds remaining.
An offensive foul charge on Calhoun then gave the ball back to the Patriots and they made two more free throws to get the advantage back to four at 71-67 with 26 seconds to go.
Faulkner then hit a long three to close it to one again, but the Patriots closed out the scoring with a free throw with 8.1 seconds left.
Calhoun had a chance at the end to tie it, but the shot was off and the rebound got away as the horn sounded.
Faulkner led all scorers with 28 points and Schild had a season-high 12 points. Harris finished the night with 11 points and Streete threw in nine more.
The Patriots had three players in double figures with junior guard Javonne Williams leading the way with 25 points. Frantzyr Chardavoine also had 17 points and guard Khalil Jones added 12 more as the Patriots improved their record to 7-3 on the year.
The Yellow Jackets are now off until Friday night when they are back on the road with a trip to Mill Creek.