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By ABBY NAVE | Special to the Reporter

CALERA – Both the Calera Eagles and Briarwood Christian Lions put up a tough fight on Friday night, Jan. 26, but Briarwood took home its fourteenth win of the season with a 73-67 victory at Calera High School.

The Lions started the game off extremely strong with eight points made by Drew Mears. However, the Eagles matched this energy with four made free throws by Travis Hatch and DJ White.

While Briarwood played a competitive man-to-man defense, Calera resisted this and led after the first quarter 21-17.

The Lions offense bounced back in the second quarter with a total of 17 points, four of which were contributed by Garrett Witherington’s two made free throws and Mears’ two made free throws.

At the end of the half, the Lions led by one, leaving the score 34-33.

At the start of the third quarter, Calera began to lose its footing with Eli Stubbs for Briarwood scoring a two-point field goal straight out of the gate.

However, the Eagles didn’t give up, and ended up scoring 13 points in the third, but this wasn’t enough to win the quarter, leaving the Lions with a 52-46 lead going into the fourth.

Briarwood started off the final quarter strong with five points made by Josh Thompson, but Calera wasn’t giving up as Tierren Thomas had eight points in the fourth and Jayden Hall scored six points.

Things really started heating up when the Eagles went to a full-court press, leading to a Hall two-point field goal after a forced turnover.

However, Briarwood made six consecutive free throws to finish the game, leading to the final score of 73-67.

Briarwood was led by Mears with 26 points and Stubbs with 15 points. Calera was led by White with 17 points, Thomas with 11 points and Hall with 11 points.