GREENFIELD - Survive and advance is what it’s all about in the playoffs and last night in Greenfield was a perfect example of that.
“Yeah. To an extent,” Calhoun head coach Ryan Graner said of his worry about the game with Pleasant Hill. “I’ve been fretting about this game since the pairings came out.”
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The matchup the No. 5 Warriors were dealt with was their rivals the No. 10 Pleasant Hill Wolves and the two teams served up an epic contest.
As the dust settled it was Calhoun that came out on top 67-66 on Tuesday night in the IHSA Class 1A Greenfield Regional.
“I knew they would battle us hard,” Graner said. “They completely dominated us on the boards. Every time they needed one they got it. We’re very fortunate to escape with a win tonight.”
Mitchell Bick led the Warriors with 25 points and Damien Pohlman added 14.
Jared Brackett, Blake Booth, and Sam Baalman scored nine, eight, and seven points respectively.
Russell Miller was the overall leading scorer at 26 points and Corby Edwards trailed him with 18 for Pleasant Hill.
“That’s a very, very scrappy, resilient team in Pleasant Hill and my hat’s off to their effort,” Graner said.
Calhoun (18-7) led 16-9 after the first quarter, with Bick scoring 11 of those 16, however Graner believed the margin could’ve or should’ve been larger.
“I thought we could’ve opened it up very early in the first quarter,” Graner said. “We missed three layups and three loose balls we should’ve had, they got that they turned into seven points. It could’ve been a wide lead at that point instead of turning into a dogfight, which I knew it would if we didn’t capitalize.”
The Warriors burst out to a 7-2 run in the second quarter, while the Wolves shot a lot of outside shots that weren’t going in.
That’s when Miller introduced himself.
He scored on three straight transition layups that ignited a 17-9 run.
During that run, Pleasant Hill forced numerous Calhoun turnovers and turned them into points on layups or drawing fouls.
Calhoun only led 32-28 at halftime, but hit another gear at the start of the second half.
The Warriors outscored the Wolves 19-12 in the frame as Bick and Pohlman each tallied six points by attacking the basket.
The Warriors led 51-40 at the end of the third quarter, seemingly in control, but the Wolves conjured up one last big effort to save their season.
Pleasant Hill came out in a half-court press and it did wonders.
“They definitely feed off of emotion and when they got the ball rolling it just fueled them,” Graner said.
The Wolves forced turnovers just like they did in the second quarter and turned them into transition points.
Miller and Edwards converted on layups, while Dalton Crane nailed a trey, which cut the Warrior lead to 55-52.
Calhoun made 22 out of 29 free throws and was eight for 11 in the fourth quarter.
A couple Warrior baskets gave them some time to breath, Edwards took their breath away twice two huge triples, back to back to cut the lead to 59-58 with under three minutes to play.
With under two minutes to play Pleasant Hill took their first lead of the game on a Miller layup, but the lead was very brief as the Warriors came right back with 1:24 left.
With the Wolves knocking on the door now, the Warriors refused to let them in.
After a missed three-pointer by Edwards, who would’ve given the Wolves the lead, Calhoun forced a jump ball and had the passion arrow.
Brackett was fouled with 25.8 seconds left and he made one of two free throws to give Calhoun a 67-64 lead.
On the following possession Edwards launched a triple, but was off the mark, however Miller got the offensive rebound and scored with seven and a half seconds left.
The referee started the inbound count with just over five seconds left and Bick inbounded with two seconds to go.
Pleasant Hill failed to foul Blake Booth as time expired and Calhoun escaped.
“I thought we took it out a little early,” Graner said. “We might’ve been able to wait a second and milk the clock, but Mitch was a pretty heady player there and noticed that Blake was open enough to where it wasn’t an issue and I didn’t have to call timeout to get something setup.”
Calhoun advances to play the No. 4 South County Vipers tonight at a scheduled time of 7:30 p.m. following the No. 1 Carrollton vs. No. 9 Greenfield-Northwestern game at 6:00 p.m.
“There’s no rest for the wicked, that’s for darn sure,” Graner said. “They played out to this point and we know it’s going to be a battle. At this point in the season it’s one at a time and if you can get each one then you’re finally going to get an opportunity to get what you want, which is a shot at a championship.”
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