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By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Calhoun battled back the entire game Saturday afternoon but Wood County Christian used a swarming zone defense and a camping trip at the free throw line to turn back the Red Devils' charges en route to a 52-47 victory.
The 12-1 Wildcats clung to a small lead heading into the fourth quarter only to have Calhoun make yet another charge.
Despite the problems the Wildcats' tightly-packed zone defense gave the Red Devils - Calhoun didn't hit enough or shoot enough from outside to bring the Wildcats out of the zone - Calhoun was still making a game out of it and appeared to be poised to grab control of the game.
But every time Calhoun did that, WCC parried with a trip to the free throw line.
Overall in the fourth period the Wildcats hit 13 of the 21 shots they tried with leading scorer Patrick Goff setting the pace by hitting nine of the 14 free throws he tried in the period. Goff was the game's leading scorer with 23, including 12 in the final period. He was backed by freshman guard Isaac Brown with 15 and Douglas Ernest with eight. Joseph Krapinski, Logan Huck and Mitch Morris had two each to round of the scoring.
Ethyn Miller led Calhoun with 11 while Tyler Gerwig and Tyler Sims added 10 apiece. Sam Brady chipped in with five while Ryan Slider and Mason Sheldon added four apiece and Lucas Wilson added three.
One thing that bothered the Red Devils' offense was the reticence of the players to shoot the outside shot. Instead Calhoun simply worked the ball around outside then tried to push it inside against the bunched-up WCC defense.
On the other side of the ball WCC took several outside shots then went with a motion offense against the Red Devils' man-to-man defense. That offense worked well enough with WCC getting a few layups in the second half as it held Calhoun at bay.
The Wildcats also won the junior varsity game by a score of 45-24.
DJ Spencer scored 19 to lead WCC while Josh Stevens added 11.
Calhoun was led by Dylan Heiney with eight and Austin Gribble with six. They were backed by Luke Sheldon with four, Jerry Jones and Dakota Jarvis with two each and Austin Hicks and Riley Cain with one. Chris Thornton, Christopher Kirkland, Zack Yanero and Nick Watkins all played but did not score.
Calhoun will try to get back on the winning track Wednesday night when it plays host to Clay County.
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