FULTON — The tale of the tape was much different on paper than what the final results yielded for Caledonia basketball on the floor Tuesday night in Fulton.
Playing in the first round of the MHSAA Class 4A, Region 1 tournament, the girls team, coming in as the No. 6 seed, was given a tough draw against No. 3-seeded Itawamba Agricultural while the No. 3-seeded boys team took on No. 6-seeded Tishomingo County.
The lower seeds in both games were expected to lose by double digits, but at the end of the night, the final scores were decided by a combined nine points.
Unfortunately for Caledonia, just one of its teams went back home a winner as the girls team lost a tough 48-47 game while the boys advanced to play No. 2-seeded Corinth on Wednesday with a 47-39 win.
“I kept telling them hard work pays off and toward the end of the season, that started trying to fall into place,” Caledonia girls head coach Ame Walker said. “I told them, it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season, and that’s in your favor. You have to flush those things and start like we’re 0-0 against each other because those don’t matter now.”
Itawamba came into Tuesday’s game in that position, having beaten the Cavaliers (10-14) twice in regular-season play, but the Caledonia team that came out at Itawamba Community College was a team much different than those regular-season meetings.
The Cavs came out shooting and came out on fire, taking a five-point lead at halftime before Itawamba was able to get back into the game, go on a few runs in the third and eventually seal the deal in the fourth as Caledonia simply ran out of time.
Leading the charge for Caledonia were two of its seniors, Tykeasia Turner and Amaiya Quinn, who combined to score 26 of the Cavs’ 46 points in the win.
“It was just communicating with my point guard,” Turner said. “I just knew it was my time to move out and shoot, and I think that’s what really helped me with scoring tonight.”
Where scoring seemed to be much more consistent for the girls team, the boys team had its fair share of struggles offensively in the first half of its game with the Braves.
Playing in a much larger gym with a backdrop in the first half that was much further back than the walls of high school gyms during the regular season seemingly threw off the Cavs’ depth perception.
As a result, the Braves were able to keep pace in the first half, with the score tied at 15-15 at half.
Caledonia finally figured out itself and got used to the new environment and flow of the game, and in the second half, things changed drastically, most of it coming from a late fourth-quarter surge led by Jaiquez Barker.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” Caledonia head coach Tony Seals said. “We just kept playing and it boils down to, first of all, taking care of the ball, then rebounds and defense and shot selection.
“We had a good shot selection, they just weren’t falling tonight, and we still were able to play good enough defense to pull ahead as we made a few shots there at the end.”
Caledonia boys basketball travels back to Fulton on Wednesday night for a spot in the district title game while the girls team had its season end in the first round, but after a 10-win campaign, the direction of the program looks bright headed into next year.
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