COLUMBIA -- An astonished Zam Fredrick could not believe his eyes Wednesday night at Richland Northeast High School.

His two-time defending Class A champions did not start out their Upper State semifinal clash with Greats Falls displaying their usual vigor and intensity. Much to Fredrick's chagrin, the Saints looked tentative as they initially settled into a halfcourt style rather than their defining wide-open, fastbreak game.

It only took a stern talk at halftime to finally get his team back to playing "Saints" basketball. Once it did, Calhoun County made sure its spot in the Upper State final was secured in rolling to a 69-49 victory over the Red Devils.

"That really caught me by surprise," Fredrick said. "I was really upset about that, and I let them know that at halftime because that's not the way we play. It's not the way we play and I don't know where that came from. It's so unexpected because we came in, we worked out, we had a good couple of workouts and getting ready to play. Then in the first half, we just wanted to stand around and just a slower pace. But we cranked it up pretty good in the second half, made them play the way we normally play as far as the pace and what not. We took some chances, so I was much more okay with the second half."

Shamier Jeffery led all scorers with 21 points and his older brother and Class A Player of the Year, Alshon Jeffery, added 11 for the Saints (27-0), who extended their state record winning streak to 76 games. It was also the 63rd straight win over a Class A opponent and 13th straight postseason win dating back to 2005.

More important for Calhoun County was earning a third consecutive trip to the Upper State finals where it will face Dixie, a 52-42 winner over region rival Christ Church Wednesday night, at Littlejohn Coliseum. The Saints defeated Dixie 97-57 in the second round of last year's Class A Upper State playoffs.

Meanwhile, a Great Falls' fanbase still smarting from the 65-64 loss suffered the night before in the same area by the girls' team to Hunter-Kinard-Tyler had to now deal with the pain of having been eliminated for the fourth consecutive year by Calhoun County. As the Saints pulled away, the Red Devils' frustrations came to the surface as exhibited by three players, including leading scorer Jeremy Simpson, fouling out and two second half technical.

Despite the loss, Great Falls' coaching legend John Smith still had high praise for Calhoun County.

"I'll have to give credit where credit is due," Smith said. "I don't think there's anybody out there in Class A right now that can handle them. Zam's system, Zam's players, they're playing at a different level than the rest of us. So everybody is left with slowing the tempo down, trying to keep it close, trying to have a chance at the end. That's what we tried to do. First half, pretty effective. Second half, not at all. Just not enough offensive firepower to really challenge them."

"This is special (in regards to Calhoun County's winning streak). It's like UCLA with the 88-game winning streak. They've just separated themselves. You see it night in and night out. They have separated themselves from the rest of us not only in Class A, but he's beaten some mighty good 4-A teams, 3-A like Lake Marion, Lower Richland. It's not just Class A teams that's struggling with those guys."

Things started out favorably for the Red Devils (23-4) as their zone defense and defensive rebounding slowed down the Saints' offense. They also showed aggressiveness in attacking the basket and careful in limiting their turnovers in jumping out to a 7-2 advantage.

Still playing at a slow pace, Calhoun County quickly managed to turn things around with a 9-3 run to take a 12-10 halftime advantage. The Saints stretched their lead to as many as eight in the second quarter, but Great Falls closed to within 27-21 at haltime thanks to Elisten Buchanan who finished with a team-high 13 points.

"I was still a little disappointed because we were just standing around and settling for 3-point shots whereas I'd rather see us mix it up, do some penetrating, get some touches and get some movement going and make them have to play more defense," said Fredrick. "I just thought we stood around and we just allowed them to sit back in the matchup zone and not have to play any defense."

Eventually, Fredrick's halftime encouragement and strategic adjustments opened things up for Calhoun County. Back-to-back 3-pointers by David Glover and Jacobee Wolfe gave Calhoun County its first double-digit lead of the contest. The Saints' fullcourt pressure also began to rattle the Red Devils and produced six straight points off turnovers to make it 41-27.

"Once he switched it over to more denial (defense), making us dribble, we had a difficult time breaking (the defensive pressure) with the dribble," Smith said. "They came up from behind and then once across halfcourt, they got us in a trap and once you get it to the side, it's real difficult to get back out and they just do an excellent job at half. The best I've seen."

Things got even worse for Great Falls with 39.3 seconds left when Simpson left the game after picking up his fifth personal foul. Missing their senior leader, Great Falls turned to Buchanan and Desmer Anderson, who finished with 12, to keep it in the contest.

As Great Falls continued to lose players due to foul trouble, Shamier Jeffery and Bonnette combined to score 12 of the Saints' next 14 points to push their lead up to 27 points late in the contest.

"It took a half for us to get it going, but I was very pleased," said Fredrick, who picked up his 489th career victory.

CALHOUN COUNTY (69)

Shamier Jeffery 21, Alshon Jeffery 11, David Glover 8, Jeramen Bonnette 8, Dondrea Houser 5, Marquel Davenport 5, Deandrea Guinyard 5, Jacobee Wolfe 3, De-John Haynes 3

GREAT FALLS (49)

Elisten Buchanan 13, Desmer Anderson 12, Leroy Roseboro 9, Torrey Craig 4, Jeremy Simpson 4, Josh Lynn 4, Brandon Crawford 2, Walter Lamar 1

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