By Ross Johnson

Sports Writer

It’s going to be a battle tonight at the Callaway High gymnasium.

Emotions will be undoubtedly high as the Callaway boys’ basketball team hosts Heard County in a Region 5-AA showdown.

The Cavaliers, who have won four straight and are third in the region standings, will face the second-place Braves again in a critical region game as the regular season begins to wind down.

Callaway handed Heard County its first loss of the year on Jan. 9 after the Braves won their first 11 games.

Heard (18-2, 10-2 Region 5-AA) is in second place in the region behind 9-1 Manchester, while the Cavaliers are right behind at 8-3.

Callaway head coach Terry Hayes thinks it could be an advantage for his team knowing they have already beaten the Braves once this season.

“I think it’ll help us mentally,” Hayes said. “But we can’t overlook them just because we beat them. They’re a great team.”

Callaway senior Theo Thomas doesn’t want to admit that the previous win over Heard could give them an advantage.

“We can’t look over them,” Thomas said. “We just have to focus and try to get a win (tonight).”

The Braves, led by standout junior Santez Emory, are coming off a lopsided win over Class AAAA’s Northgate on Saturday and boast a host of players who “shoot the ball extremely well,” according to Hayes.

“They’re very god athletes and they’re very well -coached,” Hayes said. “They’re going to come out full speed because we were able to beat them last time.”

A second win over the Braves would vault the Cavaliers into second place in the region, with Manchester alone at the top.

Since Callaway lost both match ups against Manchester this season, Hayes and the team will have to hope for the Blue Devils to slip up multiple times before the season is over.

That looks to be unlikely, however, as Manchester has won nine in a row after losing six of their first nine games.

“We would be second (with a win over Heard County), but there’s still five games to go after that,” Hayes said. “If we win out, we would finish at least No. 2 in the region.”

During the Cavaliers’ four -game win streak, Hayes said he has seen steady improvement from the team.

Scoring leader Quantavius Leslie, also a standout wide receiver on the football team, said the team has gotten better because they continue to work hard on the court.

“We’ve gotten better,” Leslie said. “We keep working at it and we become better as we keep playing with the whole team.”

Hayes said the team has improved, but needs to decrease their turnovers. In Saturday’s win over Macon County, the Cavaliers gave it away 29 times, with 17 of them unforced.

“We do game-type situations in practice to work on them,” Hayes said. “Hopefully we won’t commit so many (tonight) against Heard.”