Caldwell’s point total adds up for Dresden

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
An unsung hero sent No. 3 seed Dresden to the District 13A boys’ finals and a first round regional home game.
Joey Caldwell only scored five points in the Lions’ thrilling 54-52 semifinal win over No. 2 seed West Carroll (17-11). But, the last two proved to be the most important.
Caldwell scored the first points of the game for the Lions on a 3-pointer and the last two points on a putback that proved to be the game-winner with 12.6 seconds to play.
Following a time-out with 15 seconds to play in the game, Kaleb Houston’s 3-point shot from the right wing had too much on it, but Caldwell was in the right position for the offensive board and stickback.
After a War Eagle time-out, WC got the ball down the floor, but a game-winning 3-pointer bounced off the rim. The War Eagles got two more shots off from offensive rebounds, but the Lions came down with the final rebound after West Carroll failed on the third shot attempt with one second to play.
“Joey does what he does, and he played an excellent game defensively,” Lion head coach Tommy Dilday said. “He showed up there right where he was supposed to be with a hustle play there at the end and stuck it back in. That was a great job by him.”
Houston’s 3-point attempt was not the play Dilday wanted. He wanted his team to run the clock down and work the ball to the inside for a shot.
“We were really hoping we could get it inside there and get it back out and run a little clock,” Dilday said. “It worked out for us.”
The Lions were indeed fortunate that Caldwell was in the right position to stick the ball back in. Dresden was called for 20 fouls in the game, resulting in the War Eagles hitting 19-of-26 free throw attempts. The Lions only had seven attempts from the line, making three.
WC only made 15 shots at the baskets with five of them being 3-pointers. Dresden, on the other hand, connected on 25 shots, the majority coming from a strong inside game.
Austin Daniel was the workhorse for the Lions under the basket with 19 points to lead the Lions in scoring. Brock Dilday had a good game from both the inside and outside with 11 points, including one of the Lions three triples. Dilday was one of the Lions who got into foul trouble and fouled out with three minutes left in the game.
Austin Maxey scored nine points, including a 3-pointer playing with basically one hand. He injured his left hand earlier in the week when he smashed one of his fingers between the handlebars on his motorcycle and a tree, tearing three quarters of the padding on the underside of one of his fingers that resulted in six stitches.
This game was battle from opening tip-off through to the last buzzer with six ties and 15 lead changes.
Kourtney Sawyer gave the Lions a 13-11 lead at the end of the first period on a layup, and both teams went into the halftime break with the game tied at 28-all after a basket under the rim by Hunter Foster of WC.
The third period had seven lead changes, the last coming on a score in the paint by Daniel with three seconds to play to put the Lions up 43-42. Dresden held the lead in the final period until Letrell Huff tied it at 52-all on a pair of free throws.
West Carroll’s biggest lead came on a 3-pointer by Tyler Kelly to put the War Eagles up by four with 3:30 to play in the first half. Dresden’s biggest lead came seven seconds into the second period when Daniel converted a 3-point play to put the Lions up by five.

Published in The WCP 2.19.13

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