Lady Jackets now play in 7-5A tourney
♦ Calhoun girls will have a first-round bye before they begin league playoffs
It was Calhoun High School head girls basketball coach Jaime Echols’ worst fear come true.
But heading into the last game of the year Friday night against Dalton, the state-ranked Lady Jackets still very much controlled their own destiny.
Last season, the Lady Jackets beat Hiram at The Hive in their first matchup, but then lost to the Hornets in their nest the second time they played before also losing to them in the Region tournament.
Last Friday night, after a 7-0 start in league play that gave them a two-game lead over Hiram, it was déjà vu all over again for the Lady Jackets with the Lady Hornets holding on for a 45-43 win to not only end the locals’ unbeaten district stretch, but also pull them within a game of the Jackets in the race for that top seed in this week’s Region 7-5A tournament in Calhoun.
However, the Lady Jackets maintained that one-game lead in the Region standings Tuesday night with a 65-56 road victory over scrappy Cartersville, meaning all they had to do to clinch that top seed was defeat Dalton at home Friday night. (Details of that game were not available at press time).
Prior to the Hiram game last Friday, Echols noted that after his team beat Hiram last year, the next two meetings did not go as planned and they wanted to make sure history did not repeat itself this year.
But the Hornets played just enough defense to collect the win that kept them within range of first-place Calhoun and grabbing that sought-after top seed for the Region because the teams that place first and second in the regular season get a first round bye in the Region playoffs.
Going into the last night of regular season play, Calhoun led the Region 7-5A with an 8-1 record and they were a game ahead of Hiram, which stood at 7-2 after getting past Cass, 58-48 Tuesday night.
No matter how the Calhoun-Dalton girls game went down Friday night, the Lady Jackets definitely were going to have a first round bye for this week’s tournament, but they were going after their 20th win of the season, the top seed in the league, and some more bragging rights, so there was plenty to play for.