Calhoun girls open 7-5A play Wednesday
The Calhoun girls basketball team is the Region 7-5A regular season champions.
And the Lady Yellow Jackets are hoping by the end of this week, they are also the 7-5A tournament champions.
The Yellow Jackets put a big ribbon on an outstanding regular season last Friday night with a 61-42 victory over Dalton to collect the top seed going into this week’s region tournament
It was also their 20th win of the season, which is a number the program hasn’t reached very often.
But most importantly, the win gives Calhoun, which went 9-1 in league play, the top seed going into this week’s Region playoffs at The Hive, which comes with a first-round bye.
That means they are automatically in the regional semifinal 7 p.m. Wednesday evening on their home floor and with a win would be in Friday’s finals at 7 p.m.
And they will begin play against Cartersville, after the Lady Purple Hurricanes defeated Cass, 53-46, Monday night in their opening-round game at The Hive.
Hiram, which is the only team Calhoun lost to during the region schedule, will be the two seed after finishing second in the league with an 8-2 record. They will also play their first game of the postseason 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, night Dalton, which began the tournament Monday afternoon with a 59-23 win over Woodland.
With its lost to Calhoun last Friday night, the Dalton girls finished 6-4 in the league for third place and a game ahead of Cartersville, which went 5-5 for fourth.
The Yellow Jackets used a big second half to defeat Dalton for a second time this year, outscoring the Ladies in Red, 35-19 in the final two periods for what turned out to be a one-sided win.
Calhoun got off to an 11-8 lead after a
Calhoun sophomore forward Allie Duke stretches for a shot against Dalton last Friday. The Yellow Jackets won 61-42 to improve to 20-4 on the year and earn the top seed in this week’s Region tournament at The Hive.
back-and-forth first quarter with sophomore Kat Atha, who led four girls in double digits with 17 points, had five in the first and three other players had a basket apiece for the Lady Jackets’ point total.
Both teams had 15 each in the second quarter and Calhoun’s lead was still three, 26-23, at the midway point.
Sophomore guard Saniah Dorsey, who was second in scoring for the winners with 15 points, had eight in the quarter on two threes and another make.
Senior guard Britiya Curtis had five more with those two players scoring 13 of the team’s 15.
Head coach Jaime Echols’ began to take control of the game in the third when they
topped Dalton, 19-10, for a 45-33 advantage as the quarter ended.
Atha made two shots from behind the three-point line in the quarter and Duke had five more, including a trey. In addition, Calhoun was 4-of-4 from the foul line in helping build on their lead.
Curtis and Duke were
the other two players getting to double figures with 13 points apiece.
Calhoun capped off the regular season with a 20-4 record. Hiram also went 20-4 this year.
Dalton finished up with a 16-8 record and stood at 17-8 with their victory over Woodland.