By SETH HAGAN | For the Reporter

CALERA – The Calera Eagles picked up their second win in a row and their first area win of the season after holding off the Pelham Panthers at home thanks to another monster game for Cornelius Brown IV who accounted for 33 of his team’s 66 points on Tuesday, Jan 15, in the 66-54 win.

Calera (11-10,1-2) has dealt with injuries the entire season, but looks to be getting healthy at the right time with a few weeks to go before the area tournament.

They got a good effort from Pelham, however, who led the Eagles the entire first half.

“This team is a really resilient bunch,” said Calera head coach George Drake. “So the effort for tonight was really good and they played really hard.”

The Panthers (12-10,0-3) jumped out to a 9-2 lead and kept the pressure on Calera early in the game.

Chris Brown had six in the first quarter for Pelham, while Calera struggled to score with just three field goals in the opening eight minutes. Pelham held a 14-9 lead going into the second quarter.

The teams went back and forth with Pelham maintaining its lead off the strength of seven more points from Chris Brown, but it was Calera’s Cornelius Brown who began to get into the rhythm as the period wore on.

He finished the quarter with eight points, and the Eagles managed to draw within a single point at halftime with the score 27-26.

The momentum of the game seemed to swing back in Calera’s direction in the second quarter and they capitalized coming out of halftime—Cornelius Brown in particular.

The senior scored nine consecutive points in the Eagles’ 12-1 run to start the quarter and went on to outscore his entire first-half performance with 14 points in the period.

Sophomore Keyshawn Haynes also scored seven for Calera who led 47-38 after three.

“The style of play how we want to pressure you full court, we want to make it difficult everywhere and in that second half they really just came out together and played off each other really well and turned the intensity up,” Drake said.

Brown got Calera going again in the final period scoring the first two buckets of the fourth quarter along with senior center Elijah Moore who chipped in six points to help close out Pelham not allowing the Panthers to within 10 points the rest of the way.

“To have a guy like Cornelius come out and have 33 that could happen any moment when he gets hot he can really fill it up,” Drake said. “But he also does a lot of intangible things for the team and his defense has really improved and that’s not always something he gets credit for.”

Chris Brown led Pelham again with nine points in the final period to give him a team-high 23, while Kendan Maddox added 10 from the center position.

The Panthers continue their road trip and will look for their first area win against Chelsea Friday, Jan 18 at 7:30 p.m. Calera will face Helena in the second game of their three game home stand Friday, Jan 18 at 7:30 p.m.