MACON – Seeing is believing for the Caledonia High School boys basketball team.
Caledonia needed to see itself walk into a hostile environment like a raucous crowd at Noxubee County to understand their preseason expectations were more than realistic. The Confederates used a second-half comeback to pull off a 64-61 victory over the Tigers. Tuesday night represented the first victory against Noxubee since they joined their new district last season.
“They just needed to see they could do it,” Caledonia coach Josh Scott said. “I can’t tell you as a coach how much that helps your kids confidence to see things happen when we think special things can happen for this club this year.”
Caledonia was down 35-27 at halftime and behind by as many as 12 in the third quarter before senior guard Caleb Brown simply got going offensively.
“It was pretty quiet in that locker room at halftime after we’d had a pretty big lead and let it slip away,” Brown said. “I don’t really know what changed in that second half except for I saw shots fall early on from the third quarter on.”
The 6-foot perimeter threat scored 13 points in the third quarter, including a stretch of seven straight points, to bring Caledonia (16-2, 2-0) back into the lead. Brown was frustrated by a scattered pace of play and foul trouble in a first half where he had just three points. Brown ended the evening with a game-high 22 points and four 3-pointers.
“We have some pretty big expectations with so many seniors and guys that we can count on for solid play this season,” Brown said. “It’s wins like this when we haven’t beat Noxubee County in so long that make us believe it’s possible if we put in the work.”
Noxubee County (4-10, 0-2) relied on the early perimeter shooting of senior guard Danvarius Kincaid to power them through a second quarter where they outscored the Confederates 28-13. Kincaid was connecting on 3-point shots from four feet beyond the arc before Scott signaled for a box-and-1 defensive scheme to contain the 5-foot-6 shooter. Kincaid was held in check to just three second-half points making it difficult to manufacture scoring opportunities.
“Right now I’ve got a lot of kids that aren’t in basketball shape after coming off the football field and that’s okay because I really feel in about two weeks we’ll be a contender in this region to make a run,” Noxubee County coach Marvin McGee said.
Scott’s frontcourt rotation was completely flipped for a reason he said after the game he could absolutely handle and that was the effective play of power forward Ben Marchbanks. The senior had several offensive putbacks and finished with 12 points, 11 of which came in the first half, and 13 rebounds to give the Confederates that much needed interior play.
“He was amazing and he’s done that in stretches but never taken this team on his back like he did tonight,” Scott said. “The inside presence was there and I’ve been looking for more of that.”
Caledonia will look to make it three in a row in district play and five in a row away from home when it travels to region rival Kosciusko Friday. Noxubee County will try for its first region win when it travels to West Lauderdale Friday.
Noxubee County girls 56, Caledonia 18
Noxubee County girls coach McGee got a chance to rest essentially his entire starting five for the entire second half of this blowout win for the Lady Tigers.
The Lady Tigers got 10 first-quarter points from center Idralian Williams as the junior finished with a game-high 16 points despite not seeing the floor for the entire second half.
Noxubee County (7-5, 2-0) rode a 45-14 lead at halftime into a victory in a game where neither team scored a point in the final quarter. Caledonia (4-7, 0-2) got a team-high eight points from Quashun Betts.
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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