By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY­–The Helena Huskies boys basketball team had no problem taking care of the Calera Eagles in the consolation bracket of the Shelby County Tournament as the Huskies blasted Calera 78-39, one day after losing to the Vincent Yellow Jackets at Oak Mountain High School.

Helena and Calera both lost their first round games of the Shelby County Tournament and were looking to rebound.

“I thought yesterday we just weren’t as mentally prepared,” Helena head coach Chris Laatsch said referring to the first round loss to Vincent. “We talked about meeting a standard and playing for a full 32 minutes and I think we did that today.”

Helena raced out to a 24-9 first quarter lead behind Jon Brown’s 12 first quarter points and never trailed in the game en route to a 39 point victory.

Helena used suffocating defense and collected numerous steals, which led to easy baskets in transition to avoid a second loss in the tournament.

Brown, who has been a big part of Helena’s offensive production all season, once again led all scorers finishing the game with 25 points.

Helena led 46-24 at the half and went on a 15-0 run to start the third quarter to stretch their lead to 61-24.

Paul Brown also added 16 points for the Huskies offensively and numerous Huskies saw playing time in the fourth quarter in the victory.

Helena’s next game will be at Helena High School on Monday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m. as the Huskies faceoff against McAdory.