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Helena took a dominant win ahead of the start of area play, beating Calera by 28 with three Huskies reaching double-figures. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HELENA – It was a big night for the Helena Huskies as they made their final preparations for the start of area play and welcomed Josh Williams back into the lineup, and they took advantage of that in a big way.

Helena set the tone from the early moments to take their in-county matchup against the Calera Eagles 60-32 on Friday, Jan. 5 at Helena High School.

In the opening quarter, Nate Ferguson got the scoring going early with five points, while Joseph King added four of his own, countering Calera’s early offense from Terrien Thomas and DJ White.

In all, Helena scored 18 points in the first quarter and took a nine-point lead into the second.

The Huskies would make their lead double-digits before the half ended after an evenly fought second quarter saw five Huskies score and the halftime lead grow to 27-17.

Helena took command of the game in the third quarter to put the lead out of reach for Calera.

The Huskies outscored the Eagles 17-5 in the third thanks to eight points from Ian Johnigan and six more from King to take a 22-point lead.

Helena didn’t let its foot off the gas in the final period of action, scoring 16 points, including 10 free throws, to pull away.

That put the finishing touches on a 28-point victory to give the Huskies more momentum heading into the area portion of their schedule.

Johnigan had a game-high 15 points for Helena, and he was joined in double-figures by Ferguson with 13 and King with 12.

In addition, Drew Davis and Kevin Pinkard had five points apiece and Williams scored four points in his return.

For Calera, Thomas led the team with 12 points and White scored 11 points.

Both Helena and Calera will head into their first area matchups on Tuesday, Jan. 9 as the Huskies will host Briarwood and the Eagles will hit the road to face Chilton County. Both matchups have a 7 p.m. tipoff.

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