Jackets close first half of region Tuesday
Both Calhoun High School basketball teams will finish the first half of their 5A Region 7 schedules Tuesday night with a road trip to Blessed Trinity.
The boys and girls teams had a pair of pivotal home games this past week and each did well both Tuesday and Friday and now look to close out the initial part of their all-important league schedule with another pair of strong outings this week.
Calhoun entered Friday night’s contest against Cartersville, a team they have already beaten, on a roll with three straight wins and they were looking for more against the Purple Hurricanes. (Details were not available at press time).
And it was more than just the fact that they had three consecutive victories, but it was the way they earned those wins that was most impressive as they had at last 72 points in all three games. And in two of the three, they had 80 or more, including the 80-66 victory over Cass Tuesday night in Cartersville that boosted them to 2-1 in the Region and kept them near the top of the league standings.
Against Cartersville, the Jackets were looking for their second win over the ‘Canes this year after they clobbered them 83-61 last month to close out the Tiger Christmas Classic tournament in Adairsville. In that game, the Swarm were making shots all afternoon long and hopefully they were doing the same Friday night in the teams’ second meeting.
That game was also just the second time they had topped the 80-point mark in any single game and now they have done it five times this year.
Against Cass, they again were clicking with another one of those big quarters where they nearly hit 30 points, but basically their overall consistency just wore the Colonels down.
Calhoun got off to a 15-13 lead after the first period and then starting knocking down all their shot opportunities, tallying 26 points in the second stanza while allowing just 13 to grab a 41-26 margin at halftime.
They added 19 points in the third and exactly 20 in the fourth to maintain their 15 to 20-point lead throughout the second half. The visitors were in front 60-41, to begin the fourth and against their reserves, the Colonels went for a game-high 25 in the final eight minutes to make the final score look much closer than it was.
Once again, the Jackets had it going with their big men playing well as junior Dylan Faulkner and senior Peyton Law combined for 54 of their team’s points. Faulkner led the way with his first 30-point game since returning from an early injury, scoring exactly 30 points while Law had 24. A couple of Faulkner’s shots were from behind the line while Law had a couple of great dunks off lob passes.
Freshman forward Amaree Winston and senior guard Daniel Street combined for 17 more for the winners with Winston tallying nine points and Streete throwing in eight.
Last week was also a big one for Law, who verbally committed to play college basketball at Freed Hardeman University. Law, a 6-foot-6 forward who has inside and outside skills, also recently visited Berry College and had several other schools looking at him as well.
Calhoun stood at 10-5 overall and were 2-1 in the Region after the win.
GIRLS
The Lady Jackets suddenly have a lot of people’s attention.
But that’s what happens when you take down Goliath.
And also are now the last unbeaten team in 5A Region 7.
On the strength of another balanced offensive attack, Calhoun avenged one of its earlier defeats and stayed atop the current Region 7 standings Tuesday night with an impressive 72-61 road win over Cass, snapping the Colonels’ 15-game win streak, which was one of the longest in the state.
Junior guard Britiya Curtis was, as usual, big for head coach Jaime Echols’ ballclub, leading the way with a game-high 25 points while freshman Sa’Niah Dorsey added 16 and continues to be a big headache for the opposition. Senior Malaysia Winston dropped in 10 more, giving the team three players in double-figures scoring, which was enough to drop Cass to just its second loss of the season.
The win lifted the Jackets to 3-0 in the league and they are now all by themselves at the top after they took down Cass and Hiram beat Blessed Trinity, 43-37, also on Tuesday night for their first league win of the year. So going into Friday night’s games, Cass and Blessed Trinity were tied for second place with 2-1 records and a game behind Calhoun while Hiram was 1-2.
The Yellow Jackets go into Tuesday night’s outing at Blessed Trinity with a chance to take a full two-game lead
over their rivals from Boswell while a Titan victory would put both teams in a tie for the Region lead with
the second half beginning next Friday night.
The Lady Jackets are now 13-4 on the year.