Riding high after an opening victory, the Calera Bulldogs ran into a pair of perennial basketball buzz saws last week in dropping two contests.
In girls’ action, the Lady Bulldogs came out on the short end of a 48-18 verdict to Rattan and then 61-20 against a powerful Latta club.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, were gashed by Rattan, 62-39, before forcing overtime in an eventual 61-48 defeat against Latta.
Girls
Points were tough to come by for the Lady Bulldogs in each outing last week.
Against Rattan, Calera scored five points in each of the first two stanzas and then only four in each of the final two frames.
Harlie Gardner led the offense for the Lady Bulldogs with nine points as Taryn Niblett, Jadelyn Pierce, Karsen Young and Savannah Mallard scored two each and Emilee Summit added one point.
After posting only two points in each of the first two frames facing Latta, Calera found its shooting touch a little in a 10-point third period but still trailed 46-14 heading to the fourth. Gardner fueled the third quarter charge with all eight of her points for the game, including a pair of three pointers.
Summit tossed in seven points, Young had four and Niblett scored one.
Boys
Cold shooting from the start led to Calera’s demise in the initial contest against Rattan as the Bulldogs fell behind 14-4 through one stanza and could never fully recover.
They trimmed off one point to narrow the margin to 25-16 at intermission before it ballooned back to 41-25 through three periods.
Logan Bumgarner canned a trio of three pointers on the way to finishing with a team-best 14 points. No other Bulldog reached double digits however as Zaiden Craige pitched in nine, Lex Carlton had six, Hoff Weil scored four with Talon Rose and Gavin Chaffin each notching three points.
Forcing former Calera head coach Trent Storts in the Latta game, Calera got off to a much better start in building a 14-11 cushion through one frame and expanded that margin to 24-18 at the halftime break.
The Panthers chipped away with a 13-11 edge the third period before knotting things at 44- through the end of regulation. Latta took complete control in the extra session with a 17-4 offensive flurry.
Craige racked up 20 points with Bumgarner posting another solid game with 17. Next on the slate for the Bulldogs was Chaffin’s four points, Weil checked in with three as Rose and Carlton tallied two apiece.