By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Troup Tigers, in their final game before the start of region play, surged past the Callaway Cavaliers 63-53 on Friday night to complete a regular-season sweep of their county rival.

Troup will carry an 8-4 record into next week’s Region 5-AAAA opener against Chapel Hill.

Callaway fell to 2-6, but it is 2-0 in the all-important Region 5-AA games.

After falling behind by 17 points in the third quarter of Friday’s game, the Cavaliers got within nine in the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as they came.

Senior Jaquavo McFarland led the Tigers with 15 points, and Andy Boykin added 14 points, with six of those points coming in the fourth quarter.

Demetrius Coleman paced the Cavaliers with 23 points, and JaVontay Boddie had nine points.

Blake Craft, Troup’s second-year head coach, has been pleased to see the way some of the players have embraced a leadership role, and that was on display before Friday’s game.

“Today, we came into the locker room, and we didn’t have to say anything,” Craft said. “I’ve always told them, great teams, the players lead. They did that tonight.”

The Tigers outscored the Cavaliers 22-12 in the first quarter, and they led 38-24 at the half.

Trailing by 17, the Cavaliers scored the final three points of the third quarter to cut the Tigers’ lead to 54-41.

The Cavaliers hung tough in the fourth quarter, but they were unable to get closer than nine.