By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Another season opened on a down note Tuesday night as ice cold shooting by the Calhoun Red Devils condemned it to a 66-47 loss.
Calhoun did many things right - enough things that it could have easily won.
Calhoun had only 16 turnovers. It out rebounded the Raiders - 35-27 - and showed four quarters of hustle.
But what did the Red Devils in was an extremely tepid shooting night as they hit on only 17 of 66 attempts for a 26 per cent shooting average. Roane on the other hand shot close to 50 per cent and even buried six three point shots (Calhoun only had two) en route to the victory.
Zack Moore returning to Calhoun after a one-year hiatus led the way with 28 points and 13 boards. He was 11 of 22 from the field but was the only Red Devil player to hit half of their field goal attempts.
Moore was backed by Justin Gerwig with six, Kyle Keesler with five, Chuck Kendall with four, Harold McCumbers with two and Anthony Richards and Cai Clothier with one each. Clothier also had seven rebounds.
Roane was led by Shane Starcher with 15 while Rhett Atkinson added 13 and Colton Taylor 12.
Calhoun led early and was down by only two - 12-10 - at the end of the first quarter. But that's when Roane canned a couple of three-point goals to open a small lead and Calhoun when ice cold and at the half the Raiders were on top 31-19.
Calhoun hung tough after that and actually closed to within eight points but that's when Gerwig was forced to the bench with fouls allowing the hot-handed Raiders to build the lead back out to double figures once more.
The game was back-and-forth the rest of the way with the Red Devils and Raiders matching each other point for point, but by then the damage was done and Roane had amassed an insurmountable lead.
Roane also won the junior varsity game despite a 28-point scoring binge by Brandon Sampson.
The Raiders jumped on top 20-2 only to have Sampson and Caleb Schoolcraft lead a comeback that pulled the Red Devils with 10-12 points on several occasions.
But that was as close as they would come thereafter and Roane pulled away for a 57-35 win.
Sampson was the only scorer in double figures for Calhoun which also got five from Schoolcraft and two from Double-Oh Joe Overbaugh. Overbaugh also had 13 rebounds for Calhoun wile Sampson added 12.
For Roane County Adam Abbott with 12 and Tyler Fields with 11 were the only players in double figures, but the Raiders did have several others score.
Calhoun, now 0-1, will travel to perennially tough Braxton County Thursday night in search of its first win before playing host to Parkersburg Catholic next Tuesday in the Red Devils' home opener.
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