Lady Jackets stay perfect in 7-5A
♦ 7th-ranked Calhoun girls hoping to run the table in the league with 6-0 start
It is February.
And in what has been a great season so far, the state-ranked Calhoun High School girls basketball team are hoping this is the best month of them all.
After all, this is the month that Region championships are decided and the state playoffs begin.
And based on their current number seven ranking in Georgia and the latest 5A Top 10 state listings, and their nine-game win streak to start this week, there’s no doubt, Yellow Jacket head coach Jaime Echols has his Lady Jackets, who are a fabulous 17-3 overall, chasing first, a Region crown, and second, a possible 5A state title.
With Tuesday night’s home game against Cass in the books, (details were not available at press time) the Lady Jackets have just three more games left in the regular season, beginning Friday night when they go to Hiram for their rematch with the Lady Hornets, who they beat 61-42 the first time they played.
The Hornets, like Calhoun, are having a great season but they are now a full two games behind the Lady Jackets in the Region after losing 55-46 Friday night to Dalton in Dalton. And if the Yellow Jackets can beat them for a second time this season Friday night, they can pretty much put the Hornets in their rear view mirror as far as being challengers to the league leader.
Calhoun remained undefeated at 6-0 and ahead of the other five teams in Region 7-5A last Friday night with a 71-28 victory over Woodland, which fell to 0-6 in the league with the loss.
The win put them two full games ahead of Hiram and scrappy Cartersville in the league with both of those teams 4-2, tied for second place, and scheduled to play each other one more time.
Dalton, with its big win over Hiram just three days after getting drilled by
scoring two goals each time they played them last year.
The Warriors took on Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe nearly two weeks ago in their lone practice game of the preseason.
The game is the first of many tough ones ahead for the Yellow Jackets with Hernandez loading up the pre-Region schedule against 2022 playoff teams like Southeast Whitfield County, Coahulla Creek, Pickens, neighboring Sonoraville and even defending 4A state champion Northwest Whitfield on the last day of March.
The Region 7-5A also just got stronger with Dalton, which won the 6A state championship two years ago, now in the league as Blessed Trinity, which is pretty good themselves, has departed.
And Calhoun will begin league play on Friday, Feb. 24 at home against the Catamounts, eight days after
they host Sonoraville on Thursday, Feb. 16 in another Gordon County matchup.
On the girls side, Calhoun and Gordon Central were both playoff teams last year and both are looking to expand on that success over the next couple of months.
Calhoun, led by head coach Taylor Sumrall, were 7-72 last year and went 4-1 in Region 7-5A with that only loss to Blessed Trinity, which now plays in the 6A classification.
The Lady Jackets were involved in a slew of close matches last year with six of their seven losses by a goal. They also scored 30 goals in their 16 games and gave up 24 to show just how tight a lot of their eatches were.
They really seemed to find their mojo late in the season, when they won four of their last five games before they fell in the first round of the playoffs.
Blessed Trinity dominated the Region last year with Calhoun’s 7-0 loss to them the only game the Lady Titans didn’t up at least 10 scores.
The Titans not only went 5-0 but outscored their five league playmates by a 50-0 count in those games. But they are no longer a part of the 7-5A, now competing in the 6A ranks.
The Gordon Central girls team, which was coached by Muenchen last year before he took the boys’ job, are looking for another playoff appearance this year after making it to the postseason in 2022.
The Lady Warriors, like Calhoun, have some of their top weapons back after finishing fourth in the 7-2A last week. They also have a new person in charge in head coach Mederic Rodriguez, who takes over for Muenchen. Joani Scott is the team’s new assistant coach.
They look to contend in the Region 7-2A that they have done well in the past few years, but the league has several newcomers in Rockmart, Haralson County, North Murray, and Murray County and it could be stronger than it has been in the past.