By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
After his players had a lackadaisical first half Calhoun Middle School Coach Mike Sims challenged his players at halftime.
Who, he said, is going to step up and lead the team?
As it turned out just about every Red Devil who played in the second half stepped up. And it was a good thing they did since Doddridge had enough long range bombs to make things interesting all the way to the end in CMS' 30-28 victory.
For instance:
- Tyler Gerwig stepped up especially in the third quarter when he had nine of his game high 13 points.
- Tyler Sims stepped up in the last 20 seconds with two big free throws that proved to be the difference in the game.
- Lucas Wilson stepped up with a couple of key steals.
- Kirkland Allen stepped up with good defense as did Sam Brady, who also was strong on the boards. Tyler Tanner fought off the effects of the flu to have some good minutes late when Allen got in foul trouble.
Luke Sheldon and William Baker, both who did not play in the second half, had already stepped up in the first half with strong defensive play.
It was a good thing for the Red Devils' effort was there in the second half because Doddridge had four of its five three-point goals to hang tough all the way.
With the win Calhoun goes to 9-6 on the season and heads into Central West Virginia Athletic Conference (CWVAC) tournament play at Walton Tuesday. Walton hammered CMS both times the two teams played this year. The winner of the Calhoun-Walton game will advance to the CWVAC semifinals at Braxton.
Calhoun jumped out to an easy 5-2 lead and appeared to be en route to a runaway. Perhaps it was too easy since the Red Devils went into something of a funk and Doddridge rallied to take the lead at halftime 11-10.
After that it was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way with the Red Devils not gaining the upper hand until Sims made a pair of three throws and then the game was put away until the final buzzer as Doddridge failed to hit a late shot.
Gerwig had 13 for Calhoun and added 11 rebounds. Sims had seven. Brady added six, Wilson three and Tanner one.
Doddridge was led by Dylan Hayes with 10. He had three of the Bobcats' three point shots.
The B game was a different story as Calhoun again jumped out to a 5-2 lead only to have Doddridge score the next 16 points en route to a 20-8 victory.
Ethyn Miller, Nick Watkins, Chris Thornton and Nick Murphy all had two points for Calhoun 0-15. Christopher Kirkland, Riley Cain, Dustin Turner, Robby Lamp, Austin Bailey, Austin Gribble, Kyle Farrell and Jerry Jones all played but did not score.
Jones had eight rebounds to lead the team.
Calhoun was especially hurt at the foul line where it managed to hit on two of 19 attempts.
Doddridge, 2-12, was led by Jordan Baldwin with eight points and six rebounds. Ben Rock also added six rebounds.
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