By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Calhoun scored an eight-point victory over Clay County Wednesday night beating the Panthers 58-50 giving the Red Devils a modest two-game winning streak.
Zach Moore led the 3-4 Red Devils with 21 points and 16 rebounds. He had support from Chuckie Kendall and Justin Gerwig with nine each while Bronson Clark added seven. Kyle Keesler six, Anthony Richards four and Tyler Bennett two. Dan Sims and Randy Fluharty added valuable minutes off the bench despite not scoring.
After spotting Clay a 2-0 lead Calhoun took over and led all the way. But the Red Devils' inability to come through at the free throw line kept them from putting things away in the second half.
Calhoun bounded out to a 12-point lead after three quarter, 42-30, and appeared en route to blowing the game apart.
But Clay decided to foul to slow things down.
And it worked because Calhoun was horrible from the free throw line in the final period hitting only six of 15 attempts.
The poor free throw shooting tide was stemmed late in the game by Bennett who canned a par of free throws with about a minute remaining to give the Red Devils breathing room and take the air out of the Panthers' comeback attempt.
Clay, now 0-8, was led by Sean Duffield with 14 while Stephen Miller added 13 and Nathan Pritt 10.
Free throw shooting -- poor free throw shooting -- kept the Red Devils' six-season junior varsity losing streak intact as Clay took a 50-38 victory.
The Red Devils held a 32-30 lead at the end of three quarters but were outscored 20-6 in the final period as they missed seven of nine free throws including several on the first shot on one-and-one attempts.
Overall the junior varsity shot eight of 21 from the free throw line. When added to the 10 of 25 the Red Devils shot in the varsity game it meant there were a lot of points left on the floor by the Red Devils.
Brandon Sampson led the 0-4 Red Devils with 11 before fouling out. Sampson also had 11 rebounds. He was backed by Ricky Hall with six, Bennett, Quentin Murphy and Caleb Schoolcraft with five each while Sims and Luke Moore both had three. Trent Phillips, Stuart Fitzwater, Derek Dawson and Caleb Richards both played but did not score.
Calhoun's defense harassed the Panthers throughout and had eight steals with Sims getting four, Bennett three and Sampson one.
Clay County, 3-5, was led by Alex Butcher with a game high 20.
Calhoun returns to action Friday night at Braxton while Clay is at Roane the same night.
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