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CARROLLTON - With one more week of the regular season remaining, Calhoun Warriors head coach Ryan Graner sought after his players to prove if they can display some composure in crunch time.
That’s not what they did three weeks ago against the Carrollton Hawks in the Beardstown Tournament.
The Warriors nearly lost a 22-point fourth quarter lead and made mistake after mistake, but held on. However, on Friday against the Hawks in Carrollton the Warriors showed what they’re made of when the pressure came.
“With [Carrollton’s] speed and athleticism they give teams a lot of trouble,” Graner said. “We made a lot of dumb mental mistakes when we saw it at Beardstown that kind of snowballed and compounded on us. Tonight we showed some poise, we showed some composure, and that is a huge takeaway for us in this game.”
Calhoun defeated the Hawks 64-55 in a Western Illinois Valley Conference game on Friday night in Carrollton. It’s the first victory for the Warriors in Hawk country in over a decade.
The Warriors improve to 16-7 and 5-2 in the WIVC.
Calhoun led 32-31 at halftime, but strung together an impressive third quarter and outscored Carrollton 14-5 and built up a ten-point lead. The Warriors fast start in the second half was pleasing to Graner because he’s preached all season long about getting out in front in the third quarter, but things usually haven't yielded that way. Last night was different.
“Carrollton’s built to play from behind, and we’re not really,” Graner said. “It’s huge. Something we always talk about is getting out to that quick start in the third quarter. Unfortunately, we normally don’t, but tonight a few things clicked early. We got a few quick buckets and spread that lead. That’s what abled us to hold them at bay. We made some big plays when we needed to and in a game this tight that’s what you have to do.”
The Hawks, who’ve now lost five consecutive games, falls to 10-17 and 2-5 in the WIVC.
Head coach Matt Goetten stressed on how his players weren’t able to convert layups at convenient times throughout the game.
“You gotta make layups to win basketball games at this level and when you don’t do that it’s hard to win against a good team,” Goetten said. Calhoun’s got a nice team. Their length does bother most teams, but it shouldn’t bother us as much as it did. Can’t win games if you don’t make layups. It was a frustrating night for sure.”
A big reason why the Hawks had a devil of a time finishing at the rim was due to Calhoun’s sophomore twin towers, 6-foot-7 Corey Nelson and 6-foot-8 Ben Eberlin.
“It’s obviously something you can’t teach and something you can’t plan on having every year with wingspans like that,” Graner said. “At the same time, it’s still a struggle. I know they’re still sophomores and it’s when they’ve had this many varsity games under their belt. We don’t always do a good job of putting ourselves in position to alter shots by either jumping or going for a silly swat and getting ourselves in foul trouble.”
Nelson scored 15 points, 13 of which came in the first half and Eberlin added eight, including a dunk on a fast break. He also battled foul trouble and was limited for the majority of the game. While Eberlin was on the bench, Richard Hart stepped up in his position. The senior forward scored nine of his 11 points in the second half and was a pest on the boards for the Warriors.
Point guard Drew Baalman led Calhoun with 19 points and was brilliant offensively by consistently getting to the basket and setting up other teammates for easy baskets.”
“That’s kind of my game,” Baalman said. “I try to get to the basket whenever I can and look for the dish or look for the pull-up. I couldn’t really find my groove [from] deep, so I just tried to work it inside out, but I stayed inside the whole game. [Ethan Brannan and Nathan Walker] are two very tough defenders. When they’re coming at you up and down the whole way every play of the game, it gets tiring, but you just got to know when to go.”
Graner has been impressed with Baalman’s approach on and off the court all season as a leader and a hard worker. He’s been a massive reason as to why the Warriors are where they are right now.
“Just an outstanding player. I can’t say enough about him. It’s going to be tough when he graduates no doubt about it.” Graner said of Baalman. “Not to sell any of the other kids short, but Drew’s kind of a coaches dream. Growing up in the gym and one of those you gotta kick out, and they don’t come around very often at least in my career. To see him blossom as a player this year with the leadership ability and not just the scoring but the overall gamesmanship. It’s been a huge boom to the team.”
The game was tied at eight apiece in the first quarter, and then Calhoun went on a 14-2 run to take a 22-8 lead. The Hawks, like they’re built to, would come back.
“Defensive pressure was pretty good. Much better than the first time we played,” Goetten said. “Not for 32 minutes, but for most of the game. That’s what we were trying to build on.”
Carrollton upped the anty and outscored the Warriors 21-10 in the second quarter, which included a short 28-27 lead.
Gabe Jones and Hunter Flowers both had 12 points in the first half. Jones would finish with a game-high 22 points and Flowers tallied 19. Brannan added eight and Walker chipped in six.
Down by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter, the Hawks went on a 10-5 run to cut the deficit to five at 51-46 with under five minutes to play, but never got closer. They had a golden opportunity to make it a three-point game but missed a wide-open layup off a steal and then two straight put-back attempts.
Calhoun shot 16-of-22 from the free throw line and knocked down 13-of-17 in the fourth quarter. Trevor Johnson, who scored eight points, connected on 6-of-6 foul shots in the final minutes.
“The environment in here is definitely a lot louder than what we’re used to. A lot of fans came because of the Carrollton-Calhoun rivalry, but we held our composure,” Baalman said. “The 22-point lead we gave up was kind of a flashback, and I think we learned a lot from that. It showed tonight in the fourth.”
