By TREY HICKMAN/For the Reporter

CALERA — Silky outside shooting supplied by Drew Marling helped offset a quiet night from Jordan Bishop as the Calera varsity boys basketball team took down visiting Montevallo 58-48 Jan. 7.

Marling’s marksmanship was key in his 23-point performance, which included four 3-pointers and an 11-point output in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Bishop, who’s typically a force down low from his forward position, was held to just five points for the evening.

“Drew Marling, he’s a shooter,” said Calera head coach George Drake. “I’ll tell you that. He is a shooter. He can really fill it up. He can really fill it up from a lot of different places on the court. He’s one of those guys when (they) shoot it, you think it’s going in.

“The ones that he misses are close to going in. They look good. The ones he misses, you know they’re even close. With a guy like that, it’s good to have a guy like that on your team and one you’re not playing against.”

With Calera (9-5) up by only two after the opening quarter, Marling drained a trio of his 3-pointers as part of his 11-point period and the Eagles took a 29-17 advantage into halftime. Despite a 10-0 run by the Bulldogs (6-10) to begin the second half, Calera held on down the stretch to snag the win.

“I told the guys at halftime going out that Montevallo is a very well-coached team, and those guys are coached not to quit and die and to keep fighting,” Drake said. “I think, you know, we put on a good first half and I think some of our guys kind of came out (for the second half thinking), We kind of feel like we have this game under control, and you know that will bite you in the butt every time if you come out being complacent.”

For the Eagles, Marling had his game-high 23 points, followed by Ronnie Clark with 10 and Henry Davis with seven.

Bobby Anderson paced Montevallo’s attack with 11 points, nine rebounds and three steals while Antoine Cunningham collected six points, four assists, five rebounds and three steals. A.J. Green had seven points and four rebounds as Tae’ Smith and Undreaz Lilly logged nine and seven points, respectively, in the losing effort.