By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
For 30 minutes Wednesday night Calhoun played basketball as well as it had
all season. Maybe better.
But a high school basketball game is 32 minutes long and in those other
two minutes the Red Devils made enough miscues and missed enough shots to
allow Doddridge to sneak away with a 64-51 victory.
The game was the high water mark for Calhoun's offense as the 51 points
topped its previous high of 47 it scored in a loss at Wirt County. The 16
turnovers for the Red Devils were one of the lower totals of the season
and the individual efforts of two or three of the players was outstanding.
Still it was not enough to keep the Red Devils from being winless on the
season (0-16) and nursing a 38-game losing streak stretching back to the
final game of the 2009-10 campaign.
Rallying behind the inspired play of sophomores Mason Sheldon and Ryan
Slider the Red Devils led early, were close at halftime, closer even at
the end of the third quarter. Then came to two bad minutes.
After cutting the Doddridge lead to two, 40-38, heading in to the fourth
quarter.
But that was it as a turnover on one end of the court led to a Doddridge
basket on the other. A missed shot became another Doddridge basket then a
three-point goal pushed the Bulldogs ahead by seven.
After that Calhoun had to gamble some on both offense and defense and the
Bulldogs slowly pulled ahead by double figures as Jeff Bonnell, Corey
Aichele and Keith Britton combined for 22 of their team's 24 points.
Bonnell led with nine including a three-point goal, while Aichele had
seven, including a three-point goal. Britton, who came off the bench, had
all six of his points.
Doddridge, now 3-12, was led by Aichele with 23 while Bonnell added 17.
Shane Yeater added nine, eight which came in the first half, while Hinzman
added six, burly Clayton Yeager five and Daniel Plaugher and Clay Hileman
added two each to round out the score.
Slider led Calhoun with 114 while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out
four assists. Sheldon, playing his best game of the year, had 13 points,
13 rebounds two assists and a blocked shot.
Trent Phillips added eight, Caleb Schoolcraft five, Tyler Gerwig and Ricky
Hall four each, Luke Moore three and Lucas Wilson played but did not
score.
Doddridge also won the junior varsity game by a 49-42 margin as Hinzman
had 12 and Dylan Hayes 11.
Calhoun, now 0-12, was led by Tyler Tanner with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
He was backed by Wilson with eight, William Baker with five, Derek Dawson
and Sam Brady with four each, Ray Davis and Luke Sheldon with three each
and Gerwig with two.
Calhoun seeks that first elusive win Friday night at South Harrison while
Doddridge is idle until playing host to Williamstown next Wednesday.
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