Calhoun, Hiram clash for a 3rd time
♦ Yellow Jackets, Hornet battled each other Friday night for the 7-5A championship
Just two weeks after NBA legend LeBron James became the league’s all-time leading scorer, the Calhoun basketball program now has a new all-time leading scorer.
Senior Dylan Faulkner scored 25 points Wednesday night, including a pair of foul shots with under 30 seconds left in the game, to not only become the new King of the Mountain in point production, but also help the Yellow Jackets put away Cass, 67-62, in the Region 7-5A tournament semifinals at the Hive.
The win means they will now play defending region champ Hiram Friday night at The Hive to determine who will be the league’s one seed and who will be the two seed heading into Wednesday night’s opening round of the GHSA 5A playoffs.
Faulkner’s second foul shot gave him 1,606 points in his career at the gym on Yellow Jacket Drive and at night’s end, he had 1,610 points because the 6-foot-8 phenom added four free throws in the final 26.5 seconds to ice the win.
The last time Calhoun and Hiram met on the basketball court before Friday night’s Region 7-5A tournament championship game at The Hive, the game was a classic.
Going into three overtimes, the Yellow Jackets and Hornets scraped and clawed through four quarters of regulation and three extra sessions before Hiram got the win at home.
So it seems their third meeting this season would be another classic, with Jacket nation hoping the big difference this time is the outcome. (Details of the Calhoun-Hiram game were
not available at press time).
A couple of hours after Calhoun’s victory Wednesday night, Hiram clinched its trip to the
Friday’s finals by knocking off Cartersville, 90-50, in the final
game of four that night at The Hive.
The Hornets entered the game against Calhoun with a 23-2 record and were, like Calhoun, looking for another trip to at least the 5A state semifinals at Fort Valley State in early March after they both got that far last year in the state playoffs.
One thing that has to be noted about the Yellow Jackets entering the postseason is their youth with Faulkner the team’s only senior starter and really the lone upperclassmen in the playing rotation, although forward Brooks Crawford and guard Caden Schild did get into the game against Cass.
Other than Faulkner, though, head coach Vince Layson starts two juniors — guards Daniel Streete and Landon Chattam — and two sophomores — forwards Andrew Purdy and Jace Johns.
And the first couple of guys off the bench were sophomore forward Emaree Winston, sophomore guard Macaden Griffin and freshman forward Blake Hammett.
Winston, who was out the first two months of the season with a knee injury, looks a little more comfortable every time he plays, although the Calhoun coaches and fans hold their collective breaths when the rugged forward takes some of the shots he takes. And that includes a particularly tough tumble he took
midway through the fourth quarter against Cass after driving to the bucket, when he was down for a prolonged period before he stood up, seemingly okay.
And it was a physical game overall against the smaller Colonels around the rim with Purdy, who played shortstop Monday night for the Calhoun baseball team against Cedartown, leaving the game early in the fourth when he took a hard shot attempting to a snare a rebound in traffic. To their credit, the Colonels went right at the bigger Yellow Jackets when they weren’t taking shots from behind the 3-point line.
After a 36-point first half that saw the Jackets holding a 36-27 lead at halftime, the Colonels stormed out of the locker room and began the third period with 10 points in less than two minutes for a 37-36 lead with 6:18 showing, prompting a swift Calhoun timeout.
The Jackets righted the ship though after the stoppage, though, going on a 15-5 run over the next six minutes to secure their biggest lead of the game, 51-42, at the end of three.
Out of the timeout, they went on an 8-2 flurry for a 44-39 lead. After Cass closed it to 44-42 with a three, Calhoun scored the final seven points of the period.
A Purdy three out of the corner just before he exited, two Chattam foul shots and a Faulkner layin were how those points came.
A Faulkner foul shot on the first point of the fourth quarter gave Calhoun its only 10-point lead of the
night at 52-42. But Cass responded with a three to make it 52-45 and would keep it close from there on out.
Things got real intense around the two minute mark when the Colonels had closed the gap to 56-54. They had a chance to tie it or take the lead, but threw the ball away on a fast break.
Then Calhoun had two point-blank shots that wouldn’t fall with a Faulkner shot rolling around from back to front and then a tip-in danced on the rim a few times before coming down outside the metal, but Calhoun was able to put the lid on the Cass box at the foul line.
In the final 80 seconds, they were 10-of-13 from the stripe with Faulkner going 6-for-6 to get the win. Cass kept it close with two three-pointers in the final 12 seconds of the contest.
Besides Faulkner’s 25, Streete had 11 points for Calhoun and Winston dropped in 10. And Faulkner is now the program’s all-time leading in points, rebounds, and blocked shots.
The score was tied at two, four, and 12 in an entertaining first quarter before Calhoun closed with a 5-2 run for a 17-14 lead after one.
In the second frame, the teams were knotted at 17, 19, and 23 before Winston started a Calhoun 13-4 outburst with five straight points, including a three, to end the first half with Calhoun up by nine.
The Yellow Jackets improved to 1411 on the year.
Cass, which will play in the Region tournament third-place game Friday before the girls’ finals, slipped to 1313 on the season.