CALHOUN, Ga. -- Pepperell had a strategy.
Calhoun had the taller, stronger players and prevailed 81-48 in the opening round of the Class AAA state tournament on Wednesday night.
The Dragons won the opening tip and passed for nearly two minutes until DeSean Ware launched a 3-pointer. He missed -- but ended his high school career with a fourth-quarter flurry.
The Yellow Jackets pressured and trapped all over the floor with athletes that led the Calhoun football team to a state championship in December.
"We got beat by a very good team that beat us in every aspect of the game," Pepperell coach Skip Matherly said. "We wanted to slow it down against them, but you have to do a lot of things better than we did against them tonight."
The Yellow Jackets (22-3) will play a second-round game Saturday at home against the Josey-Cedar Grove winner.
Calhoun coach Vince Layson made scouting his team a little more difficult by mixing up his trapping defenses and getting six players to score at least nine points.
Jireh Wilson led Calhoun with 17 points, 13 coming in the first half. Malik Lawrence and Matthew Pruett came off the bench to score 12 points and Chapin Rierson added 11 points.
Ware led all players with 27 points including seven 3-pointers. He buried six in a row during the fourth quarter.
"You have to give the guy credit," Wilson said. "In his last high school game, he made the most of it."
Calhoun led 40-16 at halftime after finishing the second quarter on a 16-2 run.
"You have to come out and build a solid lead, and that let us play our style and at our speed," Layson said. "Our guys used their attributes to their advantage. They were able to deflect some balls, get in the passing lanes, and that led to our transition game."
Calhoun led 60-30 after the third quarter which led to fourth quarter fireworks. Calhoun and Pepperell combined to score on 10 straight possessions without a missed shot -- all by Ware for Pepperell with Calhoun's Pruett and Ryan Randall adding to the streak.
Ware made six 3-pointers in a row, from all over the court including a 25-footer from the left wing. The Calhoun crowd groaned as Pepperell teammate ended the streak by missing a 3-pointer.
"They got hot in the end, and we did too," Layson said. "Usually a short quarter doesn't pack that much excitement, but it did for sure tonight."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.