It was a new year, but the North Callaway boys still couldn’t beat Hallsville on Saturday afternoon.
In their first game of 2026, the Thunderbirds lost 64-37 at home to Hallsville for their …
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It was a new year, but the North Callaway boys still couldn’t beat Hallsville on Saturday afternoon.
In their first game of 2026, the Thunderbirds lost 64-37 at home to Hallsville for their 12th straight loss to the Indians. North Callaway was outscored 39-21 in the second half.
Head coach Matt Miller said the week of practice leading up to the game was good, but North Callaway (6-3) had to play from behind early with a 10-0 deficit to start the game. The Thunderbirds fought within six points early in the second half, but he said they allowed “a 6-0 run turn into a 12-0 run.”
“We had some good possessions every once in a while where that ball moves, we pass the ball out of traps and then attack,” Miller said. “Too many times, we passed the ball out of traps and then we were passive. We would hold the ball or make a horizontal pass.”
Hallsville (7-3) threw many double teams at North Callaway early in the game and applied pressure throughout the game. The Indians used this tactic to grow their lead in the second half. Miller said he would have liked to see North Callaway “get downhill and attack the rim” more frequently and hopes to see more of that in the future.
North Callaway’s present was difficult because of Hallsville’s backcourt of Keilin Dorman and Tatum Braman. Dorman finished with 25 points, eight rebounds, six steals and six assists, and Braman had 20 points, six rebounds and three steals.
“They’re all-conference and all-district level guards,” Miller said. “You’ve got two of those in the same backcourt, and they play well together. They made it difficult for us on both ends of the floor with ball pressure and were getting to the rim whenever they wanted to, especially in the second half.”
Austin Brown led North Callaway with 16 points and four 3-pointers, Dalton Brewer had six points, two 3-pointers and a team-high two assists, Jamarion Glover finished with five points and a team-high five rebounds, and Jake Blevins had five points and four rebounds.
Miller said North Callaway should be better after playing against a backcourt of Hallsville’s caliber. He said the Thunderbirds had “a good chance” going into halftime down 25-16 to give the team another game where they were in game at some point only to fall behind near the end. North Callaway has lost to Moberly, Centralia and Hallsville — who have a combined 19 wins.
The Thunderbirds had a down game to start the new year, but Miller said they can prevent this turning into a bigger problem by working together.
“We’ve got to be more connected,” Miller said. “It’s not like, ‘I made one mistake.’ One guy makes that mistake and then the next trip, another guy makes a mistake and then the next trip, the other guy makes a mistake. Then it snowballs from there. We’ve got to have five guys all on the same page playing hard at all times, and we’ve got to do a better job of being aggressive.”
North Callaway is the No. 1 seed and plays No. 5 seed Hermann (5-5) at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
