CALHOUN, Ga.- The Macon Central boys' basketball team scored 107 points in its Class AAA state tournament first-round game last week, alerting Calhoun coach Vince Layson, his staff and his players that defense would be a must in Thursday's second-round outing.
"Oh yeah, we hang our hat on defense," Layson said. "I felt like we were able to come out and mix things up a little bit and keep them guessing as far as our defensive fronts, and we made some big shots."
They held the Chargers 46 points below that 107 while posting a 67-61 victory and advanced to the quarterfinals - staying at home - against Savannah's Jenkins, a 71-56 winner over Cedar Grove.
"If you're playing defense and rebounding, it gets you into transition, and that was the key for us tonight," said Calhoun senior Chapin Rierson, a 6-foot-5 wing. "But that's the way we always want to come out and play."
It was Rierson who led the Yellow Jackets, scoring 27 points and pulling down 10 rebounds despite sitting part of the first half with two fouls.
"We had a feeling he was going to have a big (game) tonight," Layson said. "He hit some big shots - big 3s and some big free throws - and he also blocked some shots and got us some big rebounds."
Rierson made six 3-pointers.
Sophomore forward Davis Allen, who matches Rierson in height, also was a major factor, pulling down 11 rebounds and scoring 18 points. The two countered Central's Antarius McCoy, who carried his team most of the night and finished with 32 points.
"He's a player; an absolute man. He's phenomenal," Layson praised. "I felt like we did a better job on him in the second half. We didn't change much offensively, but defensively we played four different defenses - a 2-3, a 1-3-1, some junk and a regular man-to-man."
Central fell behind by 11 midway through the first quarter but came back to tie at 17 heading into the second period. The two then matched point for point and went into halftime tied at 18.
Calhoun bolted to a 10-point lead in the third quarter, then slowed down its offense to ice the win.
"Basketball is a game of runs," Rierson said. "They made their runs and we made our runs, and in the end we held our run. We came out in the second half and played our game."
A big part of that was defense.
"With four minutes left we got a little timid," Layson said. "I kept telling the guys during timeouts that we can't go into prevent. That's setting yourself up for failure. We just needed to stick with what we were doing, take the air out a little bit and make them defend."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.