Seminole County teams sweep Calhoun County

EDISON — Calhoun County head coach Cornelius Walker feels his girls team is playing well in region, but not good enough to win it. After Tuesday night’s 35-34 loss to Seminole County, he said they have a lot of work to do if they want to achieve the goal of winning a region title.

The game came down to the wire. The fourth quarter started with a 24-24 tie. The two teams exchanged baskets back and forth for the next three minutes until a Seminole 3-pointer gave it a slight 31-28 edge with 5:35 to go. Calhoun County would answer and tie the game back up.

Deja Martin hit two big free throws for Seminole to give it a 33-31 lead with 4:22 left. Semiole got a steal on the ensuing Lady Cougars possession and Amiya Moore converted a layup on the break and put the Lady Indians up 35-31.

The Lady Cougars were in a position to win the game after Amelda Edwards was fouled behind the arc and knocked down two of her three free throws to make it a one point game. Despite her game high 16 points, Calhoun County could not come away with the win.

“We missed too many layups,” Walker said about his team’s execution down the stretch. “We missed too many opportunities.”

Seminole got its second win of the season Tuesday and head coach Nancy Henry said it was huge for her young team, especially winning in such an intense environment.

“I always tell them cool heads win hot games,” she said.

Henry was particularly pleased with how they were able to control the ball down the stretch and force turnovers. Walker wasn’t as pleased with his team.

“We just played out of control,” he said. “We’ve got to settle down and play organized basketball.”

The Lady Cougars are still above .500 on the year at 6-4.

SEMINOLE COUNTY BOYS 86, CALHOUN COUNTY 79: Neither Calhoun County nor Seminole County were ready to start their Christmas break as the two needed overtime. It was the Cougars who came up with a lump of coal at the end, falling to Seminole County in a nonregion game.

It was Herald Super 6er Calhoun County’s Quenten Taylor who forced the overtime. Down 72-68, Taylor drove to the basket, got the shot to fall and drew the foul. He missed the free throw, but was later fouled and went 2-for-2 from the line to tie the game at 72. Seminole County couldn’t get their last second shots to fall and the game headed into overtime.

Big players do big things in big moments and Seminole’s Jordan Harris was big for the Indians in overtime. He went 6-for-7 from the free throw line and threw down two thunderous dunks. One of those jams caused a Cougar to react after the play and drew a technical foul with 27.3 seconds left.

At that point, the Indians were already ahead 83-79, and Harris knocked down a few free throws to ice the game.

The Cougars staved several big runs by the Indians, the first being a 9-0 run to start the game. They were down double-digits late in the third quarter, but managed to score baskets in a hurry when they needed to. Head coach Marcus Shaw said his team’s slow start is what really hurt them in the contest.

“We felt we came out real flat to start the ball game off,” he said. “We have to get used to the atmosphere. It was a pretty excited, pretty loud gym and it came down to (the fact that) I didn’t feel we played our best basketball in the first half. Our guys fought hard the second half to get back into the ball game and definitely to send it into overtime. So we didn’t quit and that’s one thing we’re proud of.”

Seminole head coach Kevin Godwin noted the electric atmosphere and said that his seniors came together down the stretch and led the team to victory.

“We had good leadership,” he said. “Jordan Harris, he’s been playing a while now, Anfernee King, these guys they’ve been playing together a long time. It’s nice when you’ve got guys that have been playing together a long time in these situations. They can focus on each other and that’s the key.”

Taylor led the Cougars in scoring with 27, followed by Jamario Jackson with 11 and Sherrod Williams with 10. .

The Indians had a balanced scoring attack led by Harris’ 28. King finished with 20 in the game, Jahmyka Pearson 19 and Alex Fudge added 11.