By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

ROBERTA - The Callaway Cavaliers knocked on the door a year ago.

This season, they just knocked the door down.

One season after finishing second in the Region 5-AA tournament, the Cavaliers won the region title with a dominating 73-61 victory over Lamar County at Crawford County High.

The Cavaliers (18-7) have won seven of their past eight games, and they appear poised to make some noise in the state tournament that begins Friday.

Callaway will host a first-round game against the No. 4 seed from Region 8-AA.

That region tournament wraps up today.

“I love coaching these guys. They never quit,” said Greg Moultrie, the Cavs’ first-year coach. “We just want to move forward and continue the momentum and go all the way to Macon (for the semifinals).”

Many of the same players who were a part of last season’s team that made it to the second round of the state tournament were a part of Monday night’s celebration.

Among those players is senior Quantavius Leslie, who scored 38 points in an overtime loss to Dade County in the second round of state.

Against Lamar County, Leslie scored 23 points, and he was named the tournament’s MVP.

“A lot of folks thought we couldn’t make it this far,” said Leslie, who showed no ill effects from a sprained ankle that forced him out of the regular-season finale on Feb. 15. “But we stuck together, and we did it.”

D.J. Rutledge, another veteran of last season’s squad, added 16 points and put an exclamation point on the victory with a powerful dunk with 3:35 left that put the Cavs up by 18.

Rutledge said the team came into the game confident, but not arrogant.

“We didn’t want to come in with the big head,” he said. “We just wanted to keep our heads straight and keep our composure.”

Point guard Terrance Jackson added 14 points and as usual did a terrific job handling the basketball, while Quan Bray contributed nine points.

Bray, who along with Leslie and Rutledge helped the football team win a region title in the fall, said Tuesday’s performance was a continuation of the Cavs’ solid play of late.

The Cavaliers lost four of five games in January, but they’ve only lost one game in February.

“After we had a couple of losses, we just bounced back,” Bray said. “We had everybody get their heads on straight. Once we did that, everything started clicking like it was supposed to.”

Monday’s game was close for awhile.

Lamar County led 16-14 at the half, and Callaway was ahead 30-29 at the half.

The third quarter belonged to the Cavaliers, though.

They outscored the Trojans 23-14 to take a 53-43 lead.

It was a five-point game when Leslie scored six straight points to put the Cavs up by 11, and Bray’s steal and layup made it a 53-39 game.

“We always talk about the third quarter as being big,” Moultrie said. “We like to think of the third quarter as our quarter, as Callaway time. We wanted to come out and jump on them.”

The Trojans did score four straight points to get within four at the close of the quarter, but the momentum didn’t carry over to the final period.

The Cavs scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to go back up by 14, and when Rutledge’s dunk made the lead an insurmountable 18 points, the party was on.

Bray said the to the second-half explosion was defense.

“Defense is our game,” Bray said. “When we play defense with high intensity, that’s when we make things happen.”

The Cavs aren’t satisfied.

Now that they’ve reached this point, their goal is to be the last team standing.

“We want to go out winning state,” Leslie said.