Calhoun Sweet 16 Bound With 62-44 Win Over Decatur, Dylan Faulkner 28 Points In the Win
On Wednesday, the opening round of the Georgia High School Association basketball state championship tournaments continued and in the boys 5A bracket, No. 2, the Calhoun Yellow Jackets hosted No. 3, the Decatur Bulldogs. Calhoun would come out with GHSA 5A Region 7 co-region Players of the Year, Dylan Faulkner (28 points) and Peyton Law (10 points) going to work early as Law would find a slashing Faulkner, who would finish with a two handed dunk to electrify the home crowd early.
Trailing 6-2, the Bulldogs would go on a quick 7-0 run to take a 9-6 thanks to a pair of baskets by Antonio Dawson, including a deep three point bucket from the top of the key. From that point, it would be Calhoun going on a 6-3 run and the game would be tied 12-12 at the end of the opening quarter. However, the Yellow Jackets would come out and own the second quarter, outscoring Decatur 18-6 to take a 30-18 lead into the locker room at the half.
It would be much more of a battle in the third quarter as the Decatur tried to get themselves back into the game, but Calhoun would outscore them 15-13 and lead 45-31 at the end of three periods of play. As the game continued, the double digit deficit the Bulldogs found themselves in by the half proved to be too much to overcome, especially with not being able to shut Faulkner’s offensive and defensive production down.
After the game, Calhoun head coach, Vince Layson, praised his team’s defensive play, particularly in the second quarter, which they held Decatur to six points. “Obviously our defense was very clutch and that kind of got us going and gave us a little confidence on the offensive side of things,” Layson said of the Yellow Jackets play. He would go on to acknowledge that the play of Faulkner was also a problem for Decatur in Wednesday’s game.
“They didn’t have an answer for Dylan tonight. Dylan played one of his best games of the year, rebounding, getting in there and battling, getting some easy stick backs, so I was really impressed with him,” Layson added. Up next for Calhoun will be Veterans on Saturday and Layson said that he wants to see his team “fine tune some things” over the next couple of days as they prepare for the Warhawks. “Late game stuff, being able to finish. I think we could do better free throw wise, we didn’t hit some down the stretch we should have hit,” Layson said, adding that they will “polish up” a few things and get ready for Saturday.
