Calhoun ends regular season as two seed
Yellow Jackets open 7-5A play Wednesday night after first-round bye
It wasn’t easy, but the Calhoun basketball team finished the regular season Friday night in second place in Region 7-5A.
Which means head coach Vince Layson’s team has earned a first-round bye in the region tournament this week at The Hive and will debut 5 :30 p.m., Wednesday in the 7-5A competition against Cass, which edged Woodland, 52-49, Monday night in their firstround outing.
It also means with a win on Wednesday, the Yellow Jackets will play in the championship game at 8:30 Friday night.
Hiram, which ran the Region table during the regular season by winning all 10 games, will be the league’s top seed and they will play their first game in the Region event 8:30 p.m., Wednesday night against Cartersville, which dumped Dalton, 74-67, in the early 4-5 matchup.
Calhoun ended the 2022-23 campaign last Friday night with a 68-64 victory over archrival Dalton on Senior Night at The Hive.
The important victory ended a threegame losing skid and left them in a tie for second place in the league with Cass with both teams going 6-4 in the 7-5A and ending up a full four games behind first place Hiram.
But by virtue of the tiebreakers, Calhoun received second place in the Region and a berth in the semifinals on Wednesday while Cass had to play in the first round.
The loss to Calhoun Friday dropped Dalton to 5-5 in the region and that put the fourth-place Catamounts against Cartersville, which was fifth in the league at 3-7, in Monday night’s opening round of play. The winner of that game plays Hiram Wednesday night.
Like just about every game this year, nothing came easy last Friday night for Calhoun in its win over Dalton, but the Yellow Jackets, who got out to a huge lead, held off their guests at every turn.
They also had their most balanced offense of attack of the year with four guys hitting double figures and the leading scorer being someone other than senior post Dylan Faulkner, although he was really close.
Sophomore Andrew Purdy had a season-high 19 points to pace Calhoun while Faulkner had 18. Junior guard Landon Chattam threw in 15 and sophomore forward Emaree Winston had 10.
Playing very well at both ends, Calhoun got off to a excellent start, leading the Catamounts, 19-8, at the end of the first.
Purdy had six points in the quarter on two 3-point shots and Faulkner had five more on a bucket and three foul shots.
They would top Dalton, 1715, in the second and stretch that lead to 13 at 36-23 at halftime.
Faulkner scored six in the frame on a three, a two, and a free throw and Chattam had five more on a trey and a field goal.
But from there, Dalton just kind of hung around and even closed the gap, scoring 41 points in the second half.
The visitors nearly matched their first-half total with 19 points in the third, pulling them within nine at 51-42 after three.
Winston picked up his final 4 points of the game in the 3rd with a pair of baskets while Faulkner also had four on a three and a foul shot
Calhoun made just four baskets in the fourth period, but were 8-of-10 from the charity stripe to put it away.
Faulkner had eight in the quarter, hitting one from long distance and five of his six free throw attempts. Purdy had five more on two hoops and a free throw and Chattam also made both of his free throw attempts in the quarter.
Dalton senior postman Chaz Ramsey led both teams with 26 points, including 16 in the second half. He also kept his team in the game down the stretch, scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter.
Dalton finished the year with a 16-8 record.
Calhoun ended the regular season with a 13-11 mark.