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After A Decade, Warriors Get Hawk Country Victory
The Warriors improve to 16-7 and 5-2 in the WIVC.
Gabe Jones and Hunter Flowers both had 12 points in the first half. Jones would conclude with a game-high 22 points and Flowers tallied 19. Brannan added eight and Walker chipped in six.
A big reason why the Hawks had a devil of a time finishing at the rim was due to Calhoun’s sophomore twin towers, 6-foot-7 Corey Nelson and 6-foot-8 Ben Eberlin.
“It’s obviously something you can’t teach and something you can’t plan on having every year with wingspans like that,” Calhoun coach Ryan Graner said. “At the same time, it’s still a struggle. I know they’re still sophomores and it’s when they’ve had this many varsity games under their belt. We don’t always do a good job of putting ourselves in position to alter shots by either jumping or going for a silly swat and getting ourselves in foul trouble."
Nelson scored 15 points, 13 of which came in the first half and Eberlin added eight, including a dunk on a fast break. He also battled foul trouble and was limited for the majority of the game. While Eberlin was on the bench, Richard Hart stepped up in his position. The senior forward scored nine of his 11 points in the second half and was a pest on the boards for the Warriors.
Point guard Drew Baalman led Calhoun with 19 points consistently got to the basket to set up other teammates.
Calhoun plays at ISD on Monday, then hosts Pittsfield on Tuesday and Triopia on Wednesday. Friday night, the Warriors travel to Griggsville-Perry.
Carrollton, 10-17, plays Monday at Brown County, then Thursday at home against ISD and at Pleasant Hill on Friday.
“You gotta make layups to win basketball games at this level and when you don’t do that it’s hard to win against a good team,” Carrollton head coach Matt Goetten said. "Calhoun’s got a nice team. Their length does bother most teams, but it shouldn’t bother us as much as it did. You can’t win games if you don’t make layups. It was a frustrating night for sure.”