By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Callaway Cavaliers were rolling along nicely when their momentum was slowed by the Temple Tigers.

Callaway won its first two Region 5-AA games of the season, but it was unable to get much going offensively in a 47-41 loss to Temple.

Callaway followed that up with a 68-67 loss to Spencer, but it has won its past two games to improve to 4-2 in the region.

Callaway finished the first half of its region schedule with a 47-39 home win over Jordan on Saturday.

Now, Callaway is preparing for a critical rematch with Temple as the second half of the region schedule gets underway.

Temple, which is second in the region with a 5-1 region record, can complete a regular-season sweep of Callaway if it pulls off the road win on Tuesday.

“Temple is a big game,” said Terry Hayes, Callaway’s head coach. “I told the kids, this game doesn’t mean a thing if we don’t win Tuesday night.”

The Jordan game was close through three quarters, and Callaway pulled away late to win by eight in a game that began shortly after noon.

“I thought the kids played well, especially playing early,” said Callaway head coach Terry Hayes. “We played with a lot of energy in the first half. The second half we mellowed out a little bit, but we won.”

The Cavaliers jumped out to an 11-4 lead after the first quarter, and they were ahead 22-17 at the half.

By the end of the third quarter the Cavaliers’ lead was down to one point, but they closed the game strong to secure the key win, with Antinez Blount scoring eight of his team-leading 17 points in the final quarter.

Javontay Boddie added 12 points for Callaway, and Demetrius Coleman made two 3-pointers and scored 11 points.