By Gaylen Duskey SPORTS EDITOR
realfang@citlink.net
Zach Houchin needed nine assists going into Saturday night’s game to set a
season assist record.
Nine!
Houchin got a couple pretty quick then Calhoun started shooting like, well, like
the proverbial “bull and the bass fiddle.”
The Red Devils missed a bunch of shots from very close in, including several
lay-ups.
But he finally grabbed the mark when he hit a streaking
Shawn Hillegas with a pass with about five seconds remaining … it was the final
points in the Red Devils’ 67-45 victory over Wahama.
That
last assist gave Houchin 161 on the season breaking the single-season mark of
160 set in 1994 by Jason Metz.
The way Calhoun assistant coach Tim Moore figured it Houchin probably should
have set the record as early as the first quarter.
“Just from the lay-ups we missed he should have had 24 tonight,” Moore said.
“”Don’t laugh,” Calhoun coach Tim Davis said. “The irony of how Zach set the
record made it interesting but it wasn’t funny. We missed way
too many shots. We can’t do that in the next game (Calhoun will play the winner
of Roane-Clay Friday night in the championship game of the
sectional tournament) or it’ll be our last game.”
Because of all the sputtering by the Calhoun offense Wahama, which had won
two of its first 20 games, was able hang with the Red Devils for
a long time.
The White Falcons actually jumped on top of Calhoun by a 7-2 count before the
Red Devils rallied to tie things. It was back-and-forth the rest
of the first quarter before Calhoun settled in with a 17-13 lead at the end of
one.
The Red Devils added one and were on top 28-23 at halftime.
In the second half the Red Devils slowly started pulling away as Jake Perkins,
who had no points and no rebounds in the first half, finally hit
his stride to join Marcus Davis and Houchin as offensive threats.
Calhoun was on top by 18, 51-33, at the end of three quarters and would end up
winning by 22.
But Houchin would not get his record tying and record-breaking until the final
1:21 of the game.
The record-tying assist came on a long lead pass from Houchin to Perkins.
The record-breaking assist came a little harder as Calhoun muffed a couple of
easy chances leaving the senior point guard tied with Metz.
The record-breaking assist came after Wahama scored a pair of free throws with
10.2 on the clock.
The Red Devils raced down court and Houchin hit Hillegas and Hillegas hit a short
jumper and the record was broken.
“He (Hillegas) really got up there,” Houchin said. “I was afraid I had thrown it too
high.”
Overall, Houchin finished with 11 points and nine assists. Hillegas, who gave the
record to Houchin, had four points.
Davis led Calhoun, now 17-5, with 32. Perkins had 16 points and eight rebounds
while Harris had four points and eight rebounds.
Mike Batten, Derek Roberts, Ryan ‘Goob’ Fitzwater, Shawn Hillegas, Chris
Sampson and Chad Conley all played but did not score.
Davis said even though Batten and Sampson failed to score they played “great
defense.”
Wahama, now 2-19, was led by Aaron Faulk with 15.
Calhoun won the junior varsity game 57-37 as Gerwig scored 19, Tyler Shartiger
16, Conley 12 and Victor Carpenter 10.
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