Calhoun County outruns Westover, Worth County

EDISON — The Calhoun County Cougars finished their home summer basketball schedule Wednesday evening by outrunning Westover and Worth County in their home gym in Edison. The Cougars beat Westover 65-42 and Worth County 53-48.

The Cougars opened the game against Westover with a full-court trapping defense that rattled the Patriots but the Cougars didn’t drive to the basket with the ball. Instead, the ball was passed to several different Cougars who drilled three-pointer after three-pointer as the Patriots weren’t quick enough to defend.

Jasiyah Suber and Zion Suber led the attack for the Cougars and also got threes from Dallas George and Darnell Enocher. Underneath Zechariah Canidate battled with Westover’s Traevion Wheeler for rebounds and controlling the paint.

The first half looked as though Calhoun was mid-season ready and blew past Westover with a rapid, physical style of play, The Coughars led 42-26 at the half and pushed the lead to 30 in the second half before the game slowed down and the Patriots rallied behind Wheeler, Anthony Milton, Jalen Holmes and Malachi Wheeler.

“Fatigue might have been a factor later on,” said Calhoun County head coach Marcus Shaw. “It has been a long summer for us. At this point, we have played 25-plus games in one month. However, I am very proud of our guys’ effort and they in which they have performed, finding a way to grind things out through such a tough stretch. The second half wasn’t as clean as we would have liked, but our guys were able to stay focused and finish the game.”

After beating Westover, Calhoun then jumped directly into a game against the Worth County Rams. Worth County had time to recover from their Westover battle and went toe to toe with the Cougars. A couple of quick three-pointers from the Rams and Worth County built an early lead.

By the half, the Cougars had come back to lead 21-20 and built a 33-25 lead early in the second half before Worth County bounced back and tied the game at 36 with a three-pointer from Grant Juster.

Calhoun held on, however, and used their pressure defense to win by five.

The games had started earlier in the evening with Westover taking a 63-48 win over Worth County.

Led by Milton and Wheeler the Patriots built a 34-26 halftime lead over the rRams that would have been three points more, except Worth County’s JJ Lamar gave Worth County three points at the buzzer with a circus shot that would be ESPN worthy.

The Cougars were scheduled to be in Albany Thursday for games at Monroe to conclude the summer season.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]