Charlie Easley's fourth-quarter dunk put the final touches on the Wildcats 73-54 season opening win over Coffeeville.
CALHOUN CITY — Calhoun City head coach Darren Coffey said the team’s success this season depended on the seniors and where they wanted to lead the team and early indications, seniors Ricky Whaley and Charlie Easley are ready to accept that responsibility.
Whaley had a game-high 23 points while Easley was two blocks away from recorded a triple-double scoring 22 points, grabbing 16 rebounds, and blocking 8 shots in the short-handed Wildcats season debut 73-54 victory over the Coffeeville Pirates.
Calhoun City (1-0, 0-0) entered the game with only an eight-man roster as majority of his players are still playing football as the gridiron version of the ‘Cats advanced to the second round of the MHSAA Class 2A North State playoffs the night before.
The Cats jumped out to an eight-point advantage early in the contest before Coffeeville (0-1, 0-0) rallied to pull within a 15-10 deficit by the end of the first quarter before City pulled away for a 40-24 halftime lead.
The Pirates used their depth advantage to make a run in the latter stages of the third quarter to outscore City 19-18 to make it a 58-43 game in favor of the Wildcats in the third quarter, but that would be as close as it would get for the rest of the night.
Calhoun City stretch their way out to as much as a 26-point lead in the fourth quarter before picking up the 73-54 victory over the Pirates.
Travecus Moore scored 15, Dominique Cook 7, and Dante Phillips added 5 points for the Wildcats.
Javaas Jones led Coffeeville with 19 points.
Lady Wildcats drop a heart-breaker to Lady Pirates
Meisha Armstrong nailed a three-pointer to pull Calhoun City (0-1, 0-0) with in 44-43 with 9.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Sarica Coffey went for the steal on the ensuing inbounds and caused the Coffeeville ball handler to turn the ball over with 7.9 second on the clock, but the Lady Cats returned the favor on the inbounds play. Calhoun City quickly fouled and Coffeeville (1-0, 0-0) connected on one-of-two from the line to take a two-point advantage with 5.8 ticks left in the contest.
City had a chance at the final shot, but could not find the handle on the basketball as time expired allowing the Lady Pirates to escape with a 45-43 victory.
Ariel Fox scored a game-high 13 points, Tiera Gunn 7, Jasmine Petty 6, Jasmine Pulliam 4, Shala Jones 4, and Coffey added 2 for the Lady Wildcats.
Suzzette Suggs led Coffeeville with 10 points.
Calhoun City will return home after traveling to Houlka on Tuesday to host HW Byers on Saturday.
