By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – EJ Datcher scored the first eight points of the game against Helena in the first round of the Shelby County Tournament on Dec. 17 at Oak Mountain High School, capped by a thunderous one-handed slam, and the Huskies never got closer than four points the rest of the way as the Yellow Jackets beat Helena by a final of 57-41 to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.

While Datcher finished with 18 points, and 14 of Vincent’s first 18 total points, and played well, it was Terrell Calhoun who drew the praise from Vincent head coach John Hadder after the game. Calhoun scored 24 points off of very proficient shooting, and handled the ball well in the face of a very aggressive Helena defense.

“We got to have ways to loosen people up a little bit,” Hadder said. “Terrell was outstanding. He has really played well the last four or five games, he’s just been playing better and better and better. He was outstanding.”

Helena got good perimeter defensive play all night from the likes of Jon Brown and Paul Brown, but often the Yellow Jackets were able to penetrate the press and locate easy buckets.

Calhoun led all scorers with 24 while Jon Brown led Helena with nine as the No. 2 team in class 2A moved to 9-2.