Boys, girls win finales before Christmas
Both the Calhoun High School boys and girls closed out the week on a successful note with the boys beating Adairsville in their one game this week on Wednesday while a few hours later, the girls took third place in the North Murray Mistletoe Madness tournament by belting the host school.
Both teams continue their trek this week towards the 5A Region 7 schedule that starts next month when they begin play Tuesday, Dec. 28 in the three-day Tiger Christmas Classic in Adairsville.
CALHOUN BOYS
With each passing game, the Yellow Jackets add another piece to the roster puzzle.
On Wednesday, it was senior point guard Christopher Lewis making his season debut for the basketball team in a tight 66-62 win over Adairsville before a half-full house at The Hive.
The game was close all the way with no one holding more than a two-point lead at the end of any quarter except the fourth.
Adairsville, on the strength of a long three-pointer at the buzzer, led 17-15 at the end of the first period.
Calhoun took the early advantage with a 6-5 lead before the Tigers went on a 7-0 run to take one of its biggest leads of the game at 12-6.
But the hosts came back with a 5-0 scoring spree when Lewis hit a three-point shot from the top of the key and Daniel Streete added two foul shots to cut the Tigers’ edge to 12-11 with 1:33 left in the first quarter.
Adairsville pushed the margin back to three but senior Jaylan Harris made a layin and freshman Emaree Winston put back a Jacket missed shot for a 1514 advantage before the Tigers hit one from near midcourt to lead after one.
The teams continued to go up and down the court in the second with Calhoun outscoring their guests, 19-17 to tie the game at 34 at halftime.
The Yellow Jackets topped the Tigers, 13-12, in the third quarter to hold a onepoint lead as the teams began the final eight minutes of play.
The contest was close down the stretch with no one leading by more than five points, but the hosts outscored Adairsville, 1916, in those final minutes to get their second consecutive win.
Senior forward Peyton Law continued his phenomenal start to year, hitting a teamhigh 20 points and Harris continued to be a valuable scorer with 15 more.
Winston was also in double figures for the Yellow Jackets with 11 points and Lewis and Branden Gray each tossed in six more for Calhoun.
Head coach Vince Layson’s team will be back on the court 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28 against Excel Christian Academy in the first round of the Adairsville tournament.
CALHOUN GIRLS
The Lady Jackets took third place at the Mistletoe Madness competition, winning two of three games to continue their fast start to this winter’s season.
They began play at North Murray High School on Monday morning with a hardfought 52-45 victory over a Murray County school that head coach Jaime Echols said would definitely challenge his girls.
That put the Lady Jackets in the winner’s bracket, needing two victories to walk away with the tournament trophy, but they suffered their second loss of the year with a close 51-46 loss to Dalton. The win allowed the Lady Catamounts to avenge a 67-48 loss to Calhoun nearly a month ago on Nov. 27.
That setback also put them into the third place game Wednesday night against Murray County and the young Jackets, with just two seniors on the roster,
showed no effect from the loss, bouncing back to belt Murray County, 68-33 to win their second game in a span of about 54 hours.
Dalton went on to win the Dalton Tournament championship a couple hours after Calhoun finished play with a 37-28 slugfest win over Ringgold.
The win by Dalton over Ringgold Wednesday in the Mistletoe Madness main event also gave the Catamounts the same record as Calhoun with both teams sitting at 8-2 in Christmas.
In the opening-round victory over Murray County, junior guard Britiya Curtis, who had an excellent tournament, led the Lady Jackets in scoring with 13 points as the team again had good balance with four girls close to each other in the individual point production.
Guard Kat Atha also made 11 points while Aryian Berner and Saniah Dorsey each had eight in the win.
Against Dalton, which really stepped up their defense in the second meetings between the teams, the Yellow Jackets again had a balanced offensive attack.
Curtis led the team offensively again, scoring 13 points for the second consecutive game. Junior guard Lauren Watson and Atha, a freshman, each had nine in a losing cause.
That moved them to Wednesday where they put what happened Tuesday behind them and went to work against Murray County to finish up their pre-Christmas Day schedule.
The team, which is 8-2, will return to the court Tuesday afternoon in Adairsville with a 2 p.m. contest against Madison County in the first round of the women’s side of the Tiger Christmas Clash.
Calhoun had four girls hit double figures.
Atha finished a strong three days of play by leading the way for the Jackets offensively with 15 points. Watson and Dorsey each had 11 and Curtis finished with 10.