Calera remains unbeaten in area play

Published 1:28 pm Wednesday, January 11, 2017

By Chris Megginson | For the Reporter

CALERA – Calera boys’ basketball bounced back from a pair of losses at the Jefferson-Shelby Hoops Classic to run away with an 85-51 home victory over the Jemison Panthers on Tuesday and improve to 4-0 in Class 5A, Area 6.

The win sets up an area title matchup for Calera (13-6, 4-0) at Dallas County (9-4, 3-1) this Friday at 7:15 p.m. The Hornets blew out Marbury, 67-37, Tuesday afternoon in its first home game of the season.

“Right now we’re playing well and reaping the rewards of our guys staying after it and staying the course. I’m happy for my guys that they’re playing really well,” said George Drake, Calera head coach.

The Eagles took an 18-15 lead in the first quarter but exploded for a 30-point second quarter to go into halftime up 48-32. Tariq Wright and CJ Lewis combined for 16 of the Eagles’ second-quarter points. Calera held Jemison to only 19 points in the second half.

“Jemison is a very good coached team. They scored the ball and did some things offensively at will in the first half. It was uncharacteristic of our guys. We did a poor job defending them,” Drake said. “We started to defend better in the second half. That was more like us, keeping the ball in front of us.”

Wright led Calera with 14 points in the first half and finished with 16 in the game. In the second half, CJ Smith scored 14 off the bench to lead all players with 18 points in the game. Leo Lewis balanced the scorebook with seven points in the first half and six in the second to finish with 13 points. Yatil Gant led Calera with 10 rebounds and scored all eight of his points in the first half.

Will Johns led Jemison with 13 points, followed by Ty Leacham’s 10 points.

Jemison will host Marbury on Thursday to likely decide the No. 3 and No. 4 seed in Area 6.