By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
There was blood and sweat but no tears for the Calhoun Middle School basketball team Thursday night as it kept its recent turnaround going with a hard-fought 25-19 victory over Spencer.
With the win the Red Devils, now 4-5, evened the score with SMS, 3-2. Spencer beat the Red Devils by 12 (44-32) before the Christmas break.
In the game the sweat was provided by all the Red Devil players while the blood came from Lucas Wilson, who was inadvertently hit in the nose by a Spencer player. But before he went out with the injury he had smacked the Yellow Jackets around for eight points, five rebounds and two steals. It was his energized play in the second quarter that brought Calhoun from behind to the lead as he hit all eight of his points in that stanza.
Tyler Sims led Calhoun with nine points as he appears to have regained his shooting touch.
Tyler Gerwig added four points but had 18 big rebounds as the Red Devils dominated the boards by out rebounding Spencer 40-15. Wilson and Tyler Tanner had five rebounds with Kirkland Allen getting four and Sam Brady three. Luke Sheldon and William Baker had two each and Sims one.
After spotting Spencer a 10-5 first period lead Calhoun kicked things in gear in the second quarter behind the inspired play of Wilson.
The teams battled on even terms the next period with Calhoun going into the fourth quarter with a one-point, 19-18, lead.
But that was it for the Yellow Jackets as the Red Devils' defense shut down Spencer's offense allowing just one free throw.
Calhoun sealed the deal with less than a minute to go when Allen hit a pair of free throws when Spencer went to a strategy of fouling CMS players to stop the clock.
Things didn't go quite so well for the CMS B team but it did manage to score in the second half this time in the 36-11 loss. In the first game of the season Spencer shut Calhoun out in the second half en route to a 34-6 victory.
Nick Watkins came off the bench to lead Calhoun, now 0-9, with six while Ethyn Miller added three and Jerry Jones two. Christopher Kirkland, Chris Thornton, Riley Cain, Justyn Starcher, Dustin Turner, Robby Lamp, Austin Bailey, Nick Murphy, Austin Gribble and Kyle Farrell all played but did not score.
For Spencer, now 7-1, Dalton Simmons and Drew Kinder led the way with eight each.
Calhoun returns to action Tuesday night when it entertains Clay Middle School.
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