Warriors survive Carrollton's fourth quarter comeback in Beardstown Tournament

BEARDSTOWN - Heading into the final quarter of action, the Calhoun Warriors looked they would head home with a quality victory over their long-time rivals from Carrollton.

They got the win, but hardly now with any satisfaction.

Trailing by 22 points with eight minutes to go, the Hawks got within a couple of possessions from pulling what could have to been the biggest come back of the 2018-2019 season in the state. They outscored the Warriors 27-11 in the fourth quarter but fell a little short at 76-70 in the opening game of the Black Division of the Beardstown Tournament on Monday night.

Calhoun improves their record to 11-5, but head coach Ryan Graner had mixed emotions after getting outscored by 16 points in the final quarter.

“That game could have gone in either direction in the fourth quarter,” Graner said. “That’s a testament of not staying locked in. You can’t ever take anything for granted with any sort of team from Carrollton with their athleticism in all sports. They’re going to come back and bite you that’s what happened… I’ll take a win, but if you’re not learning from it, you’re not achieving a whole lot.”

Carrollton falls to 8-11 on the season, but head coach Matt Goetten was understandably pleased with how his team didn’t fold and gave Calhoun all they could handle late on.

“I liked the way our guys hung in there,” Goetten said. “When you’re down twenty to start the fourth quarter it’s easy to fold the tents up and go home. They didn’t do that. We talked about it in between quarters. “Let's just keep our heads down. Let’s get a score, a stop, and a score. See where we’re at. We can’t get it all back at one time. Just keep chipping and chipping away, but you guys got to believe you can make it happen.”

Despite the last eight minutes, through the first 24, it was all Calhoun.

The Warriors established an effective inside game early with sophomore forward Ben Eberlin (6-foot-8) and Corey Nelson (6-foot-7). With a 22-13 lead after the first quarter, the Warriors countered the Hawks 2-3 zone with deadly outside shooting. Trevor Johnson, who finished with 13 points, drained three three-pointers and Drew Baalman added one more. He ended the night 17.

Calhoun would end the game with five players scoring in double-figures. Nelson had 16, Eberlin with 11, and Cory Baalman finished with 12.

“We’ve had a few halves like that this year. Sometimes we get comfortable against zones, and we can light it up like that. It’s just a matter of what team shows up,” Graner said. “We’re looking for a few more guys to step up, and they have been. Corey Baalman’s been doing a nice job scoring for us in the last few games. Trevor Johnson is looking for his shot more, and it’s showing in the box scores for sure.”

For Carrollton, Hunter Flowers tallied a game-high 26 points and made three triples. Gabe Jones followed with 17, and Ethan Brannan added 15 while Nathan Walker chipped in ten.

“Hunter had an outstanding game,” Goetten said. [He] just really took over offensively. We need that from him. Gabe’s effort wasn’t bad; just the ball wasn’t going in as much as it normally does. I saw a lot of positives out of this game.”

Calhoun led 44-30 at halftime and increased their lead up to 65-43 at the start of the fourth quarter. Overall, despite being outscored 21-13 in the third, Goetten was optimistic of what his team achieved in the second half.

“I feel way better about the second half, honestly,” Goetten said. “We did much better when we got back to what we like to do which is pressure the basketball. It’s hard to do that for four quarters with only five guys. I felt like Calhoun was really rattled on the trapping and the switching that we were doing.”

Within three minutes and eight seconds, Carrollton trimmed Calhoun’s lead to 68-57 after getting a steal and a basket by Walker.

“It was obvious [Carrollton] were stepping up the intensity. No doubt about it we knew it was coming, ” Calhoun head coach Graner said. “I think a combination of lackadaisicalness and us just not focusing on the task at hand combined with their athleticism and speed. It led to some bad things in the fourth quarter. We didn’t handle it well.”

With 2:24 left, the Hawks got the deficit down to 70-63, and after getting a stop on defense, they had a wide-open corner three-pointer to get it to a four-point game, but it rimmed off. The Warriors then got a basket to stop the bleeding and then knocked down four straight free throws to hold off the Hawks.

“Calhoun’s a good team. We knew we were in for a dog fight. We just didn’t come out of the gate really strong,” Goetten said. “Hopefully we’ll start with the energy we finished with tonight.”

Carrollton plays Midwest Central tonight at 6:30. On Thursday they take on the hosts of the Beardstown Tournament at 8:00 p.m.

The Warriors will face Midwest Central at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and then wrap up division play against Beardstown on Friday at 8:00 p.m.

“I thought we learned that last Friday, but it’s a work in progress,” Graner said. “Sometimes trying to get through to these guys is about as easy as talking to that brick wall over there. Right now we got to get better quickly before regionals get here. It’s got to happen now.”

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