DENMARK –- What’s one of the best gifts you can give a high school basketball player?

How about a region championship? Alshon Jeffery celebrated his final birthday as a member of the Saints’ basketball team with a dominant 97-71 win Saturday evening over Estill at Voorhees College.

Jeffery put on a show beginning in the first quarter for Calhoun. The senior got the crowd going with back-to-back dunks to help the Saints take an early 6-0 lead. Jeffery scored nine of his game-high 29 points in the opening quarter as the Saints finished the period with a 20-15 lead.

“The issue was not Alshon,” Estill head coach J.J. Orr said. “Not to take anything away from him, but his presence makes his teammates’ confidence level go up. That was a difference in the game.”

The Saints still had more in store for the Gators. Thanks to 11 Estill turnovers and some cold shooting, Calhoun jumped out to a 43-15 lead. The 23-0 run was capped off by a 3-pointer by Jabarre Davis with 3:58 to go in the half.

“We thought that we could turn them over throughout the course of the game,” Saints head coach Zam Fredrick said. “In the past, we turned them over pretty good. Our thing was we got on a mini-run, six points, eight points and kept our focus long enough to try to do the same thing over the next minute and a half.”

Calhoun scored 32 points in the quarter to head into halftime with a 52-27 advantage.

The Saints didn’t lose much ground in the third thanks to Shamier Jeffery. His eight points helped Calhoun maintain their double-digit lead. As the game wore on, the players began to get a little more physical and tempers began to rise just a little.

“We tell our guys just to work through it,” Orr said. “I told the officials that’s why they were out there. I always tell my guys don’t just sit there and take punches. We need to facilitate some of this and not be on the receiving end, but, again, that’s the referee’s job.”

Even after knocking down four 3-point shots, the Gators still trailed 74-48 heading into the final quarter of play.

The Gators could to do very little to cut into the Saints’ lead. Despite going 8-15 in the second half from the charity stripe and matching Calhoun point for point, the damage was already done and the lead was too much to overcome.

“We knew that this was important because the team that lost tonight would have to go play Hemingway in the second round,” Orr said. “We’ll take care of business Tuesday night. Having played (Calhoun) four times got us prepared to go into Hemingway and come out with a ‘W.’ That’s the only way I can look at it.”

As for the Saints, the regular season had been filled with ups and downs. Still, they remained confident to secure a top seed and another region title.

“We did have a lot of adversity,” Fredrick said. “Alshon missed about five or six games with his recruiting and stuff like that. We had to endure some sicknesses, but it’s very rewarding for us. I think it’s going to pay off for us down the stretch because a lot of guys got to play a lot of minutes and got some valuable experience in some very tough ball games. So, we see this as a blessing. We feel very good about our chances starting the playoffs.”

CC (97) – Alshon Jeffery 29, Shamier Jeffery 18, Deandrea Guinyard 14, Marquel Davenport 13, Jabarre Davis 10, Jacobee Wolfe 8, Thomas 4, Fredrick 1.

EHS (71) – Lamar Brown 25, Terrell Ready 11, Ramel Young 11, Marquis Bryant 11, Williams 4, Benjamin 4, O’Banner 3, Bostick 2

 

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