Old-fashioned shootout
- Updated: January 20, 2021
Johnson, Broom combine to match Odam’s 36 and their Jacksonville teammates did the rest in County Tournament win over Piedmont
CALHOUN COUNTY TOURNAMENT
Boys bracket
Wednesday’s scores
Anniston 88, JCA 42
Jacksonville 66, Piedmont 57
Thursday’s games
No boys games scheduled
Friday’s games
Semifinals: Anniston vs. Jacksonville, 2 .m.
Semifinals: Oxford vs. White Plains, 4 p.m.
Saturday’s games
Championship game, 8 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville coach Cordell Hunt knows Piedmont’s Alex Odam is going to get his. The secret to getting past the Bulldogs is finding one or two players who can offset his numbers and get enough from the rest to put you over the top.
The Golden Eagles got two players to offset Odam’s 36-point night and had plenty from the rest of the roster to take care the rest of the Bulldogs, and it all added up to a 66-57 victory in the final game of Wednesday night’s Calhoun County Basketball Tournament triple-header at Jacksonville State.
Odam posted the highest scoring game of this year’s tournament so far on 14-of-28 shooting from the floor with four 3-pointers and moved within eight points of second place on Piedmont’s all-time scoring list (124 from No. 1). He missed his career high, set on the night last January he scored his 1,000th career point, by one.
The Golden Eagles matched him with 21 from Caden Johnson and 15 from John Broom. Then they got nine from Omarion Adams, who drew the defensive assignment on Odam, eight from Can Johnson, six from Quinn Long and five big points from Nathan Barnwell during one of the Golden Eagles’ two key runs in the game.
Actually, if you set the teams’ box scores side-by-side, each of the Golden Eagles’ next five scorers after Johnson and Broom would all outscore the next five Piedmont scorers after Odam.
“We’ve got a bunch of competitors on our team; they just competed today,” Hunt said. “There are 11 guys over there who can play. I can put any of them in and I don’t expect a single drop-off from the guys. And they contribute.
“One of the things I’m trying to get them to understand is just relaxed and have fun. I know this game’s a stressful game: Relax, have fun, execute. Now we did not execute very well in the first quarter. We were scoring consistently when we stopped turning the ball over and that came in the middle of the second quarter.”
The Golden Eagles shot 56 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Bulldogs 32-21 and it was the backside rebounds Piedmont coach JoJo Odam said really did in his team. Seven of Broom’s game-high 11 rebounds came on the offensive glass; Jacksonville scored 12 second-chance points in the game.
The game was defined by three big runs. The first came in the second quarter. Piedmont led 25-15 with 6:44 left in the half. Hunt called time to get things right and the Golden Eagles responded with an 11-0 run to take the lead before Odam hit a free throw with 52.3 seconds left to stop the run and force a 26-26 halftime tie.
“That was huge,” Hunt said. “If we didn’t stop their momentum right there before half, they keep it. You just want to keep that momentum on your side. Calling that time out, settling the guys down and then going on that run was huge for us.”
The next one came in the third quarter. Piedmont was leading 31-29, then Jacksonville went on a 17-2 spree that was part of bigger 20-5 run led by Johnson and Broom to take a 13-point lead. Johnson and Broom had eight points apiece in the run.
“That group in the third quarter was hot,” Hunt said. “I had to call a time out just to give them a break. I didn’t want to sub anybody out.”
Johnson scored 15 of his points in the second half. Broom, who gets extra inspiration from playing in JSU’s coliseum (his mother played on the floor and has a banner hanging from the rafters), scored 10 of his points in the second half. Broom also had six assists.
“I was just trying to go hard,” Johnson said. “We came with good energy, played hard, as a team, and that’s really it. We never gave up and we stayed there in the game.”
The third run belonged to Piedmont, but it just wasn’t long enough to get the lead. Odam scored 11 points in a 12-2 run that got the Bulldogs within three, but then they missed four straight shots that could’ve gotten them closer. Adams made a layup with 3:21 to go to put Jacksonville up by five and the Golden Eagles maintained the lead the rest of the way.
Cam Johnson’s slam with 18.2 seconds left was the exclamation point, making it a 10-point game.
Odam scored 22 points in the second half, 13 in the fourth quarter. His 36 points left him at 1,562 in 94 career games. Randall Ridley is second on the all-time list (1,570). Danny Bryan is the Bulldogs’ all-time leading scorer with 1,686 points.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I had a good game, but it wasn’t enough. We’ve just got to regroup of area games.”
Jacksonville 66, Piedmont 57
PIEDMONT – Alex Odam 14-28 4-7 36, Jadon Calhoun 3-4 0-0 8, Jakari Foster 3-5 0-0 7, Luke Bussey 1-4 1-2 4, Omarion Foster 1-2 0-0 2, Jack Hayes 0-0 0-0 0, Coleman Reid 0-1 0-0 0, Sean Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Cassius Fairs 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-45 5-9 57.
JACKSONVILLE – Caden Johnson 8-12 1-2 21, John Broom 5-8 4-8 15, Omarion Adams 3-6 2-3 9, Cam Johnson 4-8 0-0 8, Quinn Long 3-6 0-0 6, Nathan Barnwell 2-3 1-1 5, Coby Zackery 1-2 0-0 2, Jaylon Prater 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan Duke 0-0 0-0 0, Julian Hill 0-0 0-0 0, JaeTaj Morris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-46 8-14 66.
Piedmont 21 5 15 16 – 57
Jacksonville 15 11 23 17 — 66
3-point goals: Piedmont 8-24 (Odam 4-14, Calhoun 2-3, J. Foster 1-2, Bussey 1-4, Reid 0-1); Jacksonville 6-15 (Cd. Johnson 4-7, Broom 1-3, Adams 1-1, Cm. Johnson 0-2, Long 0-1, Zackery 0-1). Rebounds: Piedmont 21 (Odam 4); Jacksonville 32 (Cd. Johnson 10, Broom 11). Fouled out: Bussey. Total fouls: Piedmont 15, Jacksonville 10.
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