TRENTON, Ga. — The third digit in the scorebox underneath the home side of the scoreboard at Dade County High School’s gymnasium works fine, but the home fans already knew that. Those from Calhoun who stuck around for Tuesday night’s boys’ game found out, too — almost before the fourth quarter started.
The third quarter ended with Dade County four points shy of the century mark, which eventually fell in the time-shortened fourth period of the Wolverines’ 108-60 victory in the Region 7-AA/B basketball game.
Junior point guard Travis Core, who scored 24 points, said he and his teammates had thought about the rematch with the Yellow Jackets from the time they lost at Calhoun earlier this season.
“When we don’t play hard,” Core said, “we’re not very good.”
The loss had knocked the Wolverines (20-2, 6-1) from the unbeaten ranks.
“We were ranked No. 1 at the time and they took us to the woodshed,” Dade coach Glen Hicks said. “They won every phase of the game. They did everything better than we did and deserved to win.”
Not this time. Dade County’s run-and-gun style of play was in top form Tuesday. Core’s steals off the press, ball-handling and passing helped put the running game in high gear. Six players combining for 12 3-point goals illustrates how much the gunning was on the mark.
“I think between Jake and Andrew they only had one 3,” Core said of Andrew Houts, the team’s leading scorer for the season, and fellow starter Jake Bell. “A lot of other people stepped up and hit open shots. That forced them to change their game plan.”
Calhoun (10-6, 4-3) never led and the only tie was at 4. Two of Ben Patton’s five 3-pointers accounted for the first of the Wolverines’ points in a 16-4 run from there that gave them command early. Their first 20-point lead was 42-22. After the Yellow Jackets’ Dustin Christian made a layup at the 2:52 mark, Dade’s Cole Gossett scored 10 points in succession before Core made a free-throw-line jumper at the buzzer for a 30-point lead.
The Wolverines starters went to the bench for good after a 42-point third quarter that stretched the lead 20 more points.
Brett Walraven, who made three 3-pointers, and Tyler Taylor scored 13 points apiece for Calhoun. Christian added 10.
“We’d love to steal the ball from you every time,” Hicks said. “If not, we’d just as soon you take a bad shot or throw up a quick shot. When that happened they might’ve made one or two, but it got the game in our tempo. I’d be all for a 24-second shot clock.”
Patton led Dade County with 27 points and Houts finished with 16. Gossett and Houston Moon totaled 12 each off the bench.