By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
For every loss there is a reason.
That's something Calhoun's basketball team has had to face for the 37th
straight time.
Wednesday night some things were good ⦠good enough to win. But for some
reason some other things were bad ⦠bad enough to lose. As it turned out the
things that were bad were enough to allow Gilmer to take a 54-35 victory
over the 0-14 Red Devils.
What was good?
Calhoun's defense. It held Gilmer to 19 first half points.
What was bad?
Calhoun's offense that managed only eight first half points.
What was good?
Calhoun's ability to draw fouls. It got Gilmer in foul trouble in the third
quarter and even went on the double bonus for free throws when Gilmer was
whistled for its 10th team foul.
What was bad?
Calhoun's foul shooting. While the Red Devils had the Titans on the ropes
with foul problems they let the Gilmer Countians off the ropes by shooting a
woeful four of 14 from the field in that period. So instead of cutting the
Titans lead the Red Devils allowed Gilmer to go even further ahead.
Its been that way for a very long time as the Red Devils pull some of their
game together only to have other parts of it fall apart.
Calhoun did not have a player hit double figures and was led by senior Caleb
Schoolcraft with nine. Tyler Gerwig added eight, Mason Sheldon seven, Ricky
Hall six, Trent Phillips three and Ryan Slider two. Luke Moore, Ray Davis,
Derek Dawson, Lucas Wilson, Tyler Tanner and Sam Brady all played but did
not score.
Austin Cunningham led Gilmer, 6-8, with 16 while Anthony Aviles added 14.
Reed Ratliff came off the bench to add nine while Austin Ratliff had six and
Mitchell Hickman, Nick Roberts had four each and Zach Chapman had one. Seth
Skinner and Dante Hall both played but did not score.
The Red Devils did keep turnovers below 20 (they had 19) and managed to out
rebound the smaller Titans 32-23 as Sheldon led the way with a game high 12.
But poor shooting from the field (as well as the foul line) where the Red
Devils were 11 of 30 for 36 per cent more than managed to negate the other
positives.
The Red Devils, who had not beaten Gilmer County since Marcus Davis was a
senior, will try to get on the winning track Saturday afternoon in a
girl-boy doubleheader against Clarksburg Notre Dame at Mount Zion.
The girls
game gets under way at 1 p.m. And will be followed by the boys game.
As with Wednesday game against Gilmer there will be no junior varsity
contest.
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