Jaylen Taylor was sensational in the Howard boys’ basketball team’s postseason opener.
The junior shooting guard scored a career-high 47 points in Wednesday’s 70-37 victory over Ooltewah in the District 5-4A tournament play-in game at Cleveland High School.
Taylor’s memorable night extends the Hustlin’ Tigers winning streak to a season-best three games. Howard will take on Bradley Central in the district quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Cleveland.
TSSAA District 6-3A boys’ play-in
Signal Mountain 63, Hixson 47: Owen Newman made all seven of his second-half free throws for the Eagles (14-12), who were led in scoring by Andrew Matukecwicz with 18 points. Hixson senior TJ Earls scored 21 points.
GHSA Region 7-AAAAA semifinals
Calhoun girls 55, Cartersville 50: The Lady Yellow Jackets (21-4) secured a spot in Friday’s championship game versus Hiram with a 7-2 run late after Cartersville tied the game at 46 with 3:29 to play.
Britiya Curtis began the run with a steal and a layup, with Ke’Asia Miliam following with a short jumper in the lane. After two free throws got the Lady Purple Hurricanes within two, Allie Duke hit a 3 to stretch the lead back out.
Calhoun boys 67, Cass 62: The Yellow Jackets (14-11) saw a nine-point lead cut to two with two minutes to play, but they held on as senior Dylan Faulkner scored a game-high 25 points. He now owns program records for career points, rebounds and blocked shots.
Calhoun will face No. 1 seed Hiram in Friday’s championship game.
Hiram girls 40, Dalton 39: The Lady Catamounts (19-8) will face Cartersville in Friday’s third-place game after falling to the second-seeded Lady Hornets (21-4).
Compiled by Patrick MacCoon and Lindsey Young. Contact them at sports@timesfreepress.com.