Jackets collect 1st 7-5A victory over Cass
The Calhoun High School basketball team went to the front of the Region 7-5A class Tuesday night with a nice 60-52 victory over Cass in both teams’ first league game before a good-sized crowd at The Hive.
Now the Yellow Jackets are not alone in the front row with Hiram and Cartersville also winning their 7-5A openers at the same time the Yellow Jackets were playing, but it was still a very good first step in what head coach Vince Layson and his team hope is a solid stretch of basketball now that January has arrived.
Looking to run at every opportunity, the Jackets rolled out to an eight-point lead at the end of the first half and then were able to maintain it from there, winning by the same amount.
Senior guard Daniel Streete scored the first bucket of the game for Calhoun, but aided by a trio of 3-point shots, the Colonels responded with a 13-5 run to take a 13-7 lead and force a Calhoun timeout just over five minutes into the game.
Out of the timeout, Calhoun went on a 7-0 spree with sophomore Blake Hammett hitting a three and junior Makaden Griffin putting back in a missed shot and a short Jace Johns shot giving Calhoun a 14-13 lead with just 75 seconds showing in the period.
Cass scored the next four points to lead 17-14 before Griffin, who gave the Jackets a nice lift offensively off the bench, put back another miss to beat the buzzer and leave the home team down 17-16 after one.
Cass would take a 20-16 advantage on three free throws to begin the second quarter before Calhoun scored 10 straight to take the lead for good.
Junior forward Emaree Winston, who led the team in scoring with 16 points, scored the first basket and then Griffin had four in a row on two offensive rebounds before Winston added four more on two foul shots and a sweet turnaround from the left elbow that gave Calhoun a 2620 advantage with just under six minutes to go in the half.
Cass briefly stopped Calhoun’s momentum with its fourth 3-point shot of the half, but a Streete layin, a Johns’ layin and five straight points from senior guard Landon Chattam on two foul shots and a trey sparked a 9-2 run that gave the Jackets a 3525 lead with just over a minute to play in the second period.
Cass would make the next four points on a pair of foul shots and a layup but a Johns’ lay-up in the waning seconds put Calhoun in front, 37-29, at the break.
The visitors did make a mild dent into the lead by topping the Jackets, 15-12 in the third period, leaving the home team up by a 49-44 count to begin the fourth.
And in that final period, but teams struggled offensively, but Calhoun topped Cass 11-8 to secure the victory.
Besides Winston, Johns was also in double figures for the Yellow Jackets with 12 points while Griffin would finish with nine more.
The win got the team back to .500 on the year at 6-6 but there was not a lot of time to celebrate with another big stretch of 7-5A road games this week.
The team was at Woodland Friday night looking for its second straight league win (details of that game were not available at press time) and then they step out of league play for a Saturday night matchup at Allatoona.
They return to Region activity Tuesday when they play at Cartersville and then they go to Hiram Friday night to face the defending 7-5A champs before they are back at The Hive Monday, Jan. 22 to face Chattooga in their final non-Region game of the season. One night later on Tuesday, Jan. 23 they will host Dalton to finish the first round of the 7-5A schedule.
Besides Calhoun’s win Tuesday evening, Hiram went to 1-0 in the Region with a 71-48 victory over Woodland as did Cartersville, which beat Dalton, 49-41.