Sports Editor

Pike County High School head coach Danny Suber hopes his team will avoid a repeat performance against Calhoun on Tuesday night like the one the Bulldogs had against the Tigers in Brundidge on Jan.18.

Calhoun raced out to an early 15-0 lead and cruised to a 65-51 win over Pike County.

If anything, Suber’s hoping the ‘Dogs can play the Tigers like they did in the first meeting of the season, a 60-54 loss, yet a game the first-year head coach feels was his team’s "best to date."

"In the our first game against them, we played real hard and that may have been our best game of the season," he said. "But we can’t let them jump out to a 15-0 lead and expect to win. We can’t let anybody jump out to a 15-0 lead and expect to win."

Although the Bulldogs are assured a postseason berth, even with a loss, Suber would like to see Pike County pull off the upset against Calhoun in order to host a sub-regional game, instead of going on the road in the first round.

"Even though you have neutral officials calling the games, we’d still like to be at home," Suber said.

The Bulldogs advanced to the Class 3A Area 2 title game with a 66-59 win over Elba on Saturday night in Calhoun. PCHS jumped out to 19-10 lead in the first quarter, but the Tigers clawed their way back into it with a 17-4 run to close out the half.

"We came out and played better in the second (half)," said Suber. "That’s the thing with us, is that we play sporadically. We dominated almost the entire game against Elba, except for about five minutes. But we have to realize that we’ve got to play well from now on to beat teams like Calhoun."

Nick Walker led PCHS with 23 points, while Reggie Griffin scored 20.

"Nick’s been playing well for us in the last four games," said Suber.

Depending on the outcome of tonight’s games, Pike County will be either at home, or on the road, next weekend against either Catholic or Montgomery Academy.