Lady Jackets topple Dalton to get to 5-0
The Calhoun High School girls basketball team finished the first half of the Region 7-5A schedule night with a resounding 66-50 victory over Dalton in Whitfield County.
The win, which was the team’s eighth straight overall, made them a still-perfect 5-0 in the Region and alone in first place at the midway point of the league schedule. The Lady Yellow Jackets were to begin the second half of the Region Friday night with a trip to winless Woodland. (Details of that game were not available at press time).
The team, which doesn’t use a deep rotation with the five starters currently getting the heavy majority of playing time, kept on cooking offensively against the Lady Catamounts, scoring 60 points or more for the fifth straight game and they have won all five of their 7-5A games by double figures.
Once again, the shots were falling from long distance for head coach Jaime Echols’ team, who connected on 11 total from beyond the three-point arc.
They also got production from all six girls that played with three girls hitting double digit scoring and combining for 50 points while the other three threw in 16 more.
Making five three’s in the first quarter alone, the Calhoun girls bolted to a 19-11 lead after one.
Senior guard Lauren Watson, who is now the second all-time three-point shot maker behind teammate Britiya Curtis in girls’ program history, had two of them, along with a layup, in scoring eight of those 19 points while junior guard Saniah Dorsey connected on two more long ones.
Sophomore Kat Atha made the other three for Calhoun, who were never really in jeopardy from that point on.
Dalton drilled three shots from long range, but the Catamounts had just one two-point shot in the quarter and Calhoun was up by eight.
Both teams cooled down in the second with the visitors winning the quarter 10-8 to take a 29-19 lead at the break.
Curtis had half of them with five points on a three and a two and Dorsey had
Faulkner going 4-for-4, and that proved to be difference. Besides their two three’s at the end, Dalton made a foul shot and that was how they scored their seven points in the fifth period.
Besides Faulkner, junior guard Daniel Street had four points in the OT, including a 3-point shot, and sophomore forward Emaree Winston had the other three on a make and a foul shot.
The game was nip-andtuck in the first half and it appeared that Calhoun was ready to pull away when they took a six-point lead into the fourth period. But the hosts tightened things up defensively to force the overtime.
Calhoun got out to a 1614 lead at the end of the first period.
Sophomore guard Jace Johns got off to a quick start with seven first-quarter points for the Jackets on a pair of buckets and a three.
Streete had five more on a basket and a three for the winners.
It was also one of the few quarters this season that Faulkner did not score from the field, but the big man dropped in all four of his free throw attempts and that was how Calhoun got all its points in the first eight minutes.
He got it going in the second period, notching six points on three makes, but the hosts would top Calhoun, 17-13, in
the quarter and the Jackets trailed 31-29 at halftime.
Johns had a three in the second period for Calhoun, giving him and Faulkner 10 points apiece in the first half.
Faulkner and Streete took over the game in the third quarter for the visitors, scoring 22 of their team’s 23 points. Faulkner got things charged up with 15 alone on five makes, a three, and two free throws while Streete had seven more on a trey and two field goals.
Defensively, they held Dalton to 15 points and took a 52-46 lead after three periods.
But they couldn’t hold it down the stretch as the Catamounts rallied to tie things up and the teams had to keep playing.
Besides Faulkner’s 31 (which is the fourth time he has gone over 30 in the past six games), Streete had a season-high 16 points and Johns finished with 12.
Dalton also had a trio of players in double figures, but their high scorer was senior big man Chaz Ramsey with 19. Guard Drew Snyder had 13 and Manuel Hertado came off the bench to threw in a dozen more points.
Calhoun began the second part of the Region schedule Friday night with a visit to Woodland (details of that game were not available at press time) before they return home Tuesday to face Cass. The rematch with Hiram is set for next Friday in the Horents’ nest.
The Yellow Jackets are now 11-8 on the year and have won six of their last eight games.