Before McCallie played host to Tennessee Temple on Tuesday night, Blue Tornado coach Ken Henry said, "We've got six games left. We could win them all, or we could lose them all.''

Henry and the Blue Tornado got the rest of the regular season off to a good start.

With Jordan Hobbs leading the way with 17 points, McCallie avenged a Dec. 2 loss to Temple, 53-47. The Crusaders had beaten the Blue Tornado, 59-54, at Temple.

The Blue Tornado, ranked No. 3 in Division II, improved to 14-7 overall. Temple, ranked No. 2 in Class A, dropped to 17-4.

"This was a good win for us,'' Henry said. "Temple is well coached, they have good athletes and they play hard. Really, they remind me of a lot of the Division II teams we play.''

McCallie and Temple have split home-and-home games since 2002.

"Playing Temple and Grace prepares us very well for the teams in our region,'' Henry said. "We have a very good rivalry with Temple. A lot of the players are on the same teams in the summer, and we do a lot of stuff together as teams. It's a competitive series.''

Ron Anderson added nine points for McCallie, Joel Bradford had seven and point guard Walter Dozier had six.

"My job as a point guard is to keep everyone involved,'' Dozier said. "I can step up and shoot when I need to, but my job is to get us to work together.

"We think we have a good chance to get to the state tournament, and if we do maybe we can win it.''

Said Henry, "Jordan played pretty well tonight. Temple kept him from getting off some of the shots we wanted.

"Walt is playing very unselfish basketball. His role is to get everyone involved, and he's doing that. But he can take it to the hole when he needs to.''

McCallie has five more regular-season games -- a road game to Red Bank and home games against MBA, Christian Heritage of Dalton, Webb and Baylor. The Blue Tornado will be trying to avenge losses to Red Bank and Webb.

"We needed this win,'' Henry said. "Late in the game our big guys ran down a lot of balls, and we didn't panic when Temple took the lead in the fourth quarter. We've played a really tough schedule and that helps us late in games.''

Dee Newson and Seth Skogen scored 18 and 17 points, respectively, for Temple. Jeremy Sexton added eight.

"Ken's team played tremendous defense,'' Tennessee Temple coach Dan Wadley said. "Not to take anything away from them, but we never shoot well over here.

"We had a couple of big shots there at the end we normally make on our home court. But I'd rather play a competitive game like this against McCallie than to be blowing out some weak team.''

McCallie built a 29-17 lead with 2:08 left in the first half. Temple rallied and took a 40-39 lead early in the fourth quarter

That's when Hobbs made a key three-pointer, Dozier made a steal for a layup and Tyler Adams followed iwth a field goal. Newson countered for Temple, but Hobbs and Bradford made field goals to push McCallie's lead to 50-42 with 2:42 left.

"Defensively, wee didn't make too many mistakes tonight,'' Henry said. "These games all come down to a few possesions, and we've got to handle the close games better. But I was proud of the way to hung in there tonight.''

GPS 48, TEMPLE 38: After upsetting Division II top-ranked Webb last week, the Bruisers lost to rival Baylor, 46-41, on Monday night.

Displaying balanced scoring, second-ranked GPS (18-5) got back on track against Temple at McCallie.

Carly Morrow led the Bruisers with 11 points, Kamri Chester added nine and Marissa Thompson had seven. Heather Beckler made two three-pointers and contributed six points.

"We had beaten Webb last week and we had beaten Baylor by a lot of points earlier this year,'' GPS coach Susan Crownover said. "We took Baylor too lightly.

"We struggled again tonight, but Temple has a good ball club. They get the ball to (Danielle) Rector, they do a good job and they are disciplined.''

Rector led Temple (13-6) with 28 points.

"We're just struggling offensively,'' Crownover said. "We played better defensively tonight, and we played a little more as a team offensively. But we've got to start getting better shots.''

SUMMARIES

Boys

TEMPLE (47) -- Jeremy Sexton 8, Seth Wadley, James Wallace, James McCormack, Josh Smith 2, Seth Skogen 17, Adam Vespie 2, Dee Newson 18.

McCALLIE (53) -- Charlie Ramsay, Walter Dozier 6, Jesse Taylor 5, Joel Bradford 7, Tyler Adams 6, Jonny Newman, Ryan Patton 3, J.W. Lail, Ron Anderson 9, Jordan Hobbs 17.

Temple.......8 14 16 9 -- 47
McCallie....14 15 10 14 -- 53
Three-point goals -- Hobbs 3, Newson 3, Taylor.

Girls

TEMPLE (38) -- Angela Kemp 6, P.J. Sexton, Danielle Rector 28, Janette Elliott, Candace Dyer 2, Kellie Robinson, Esther Williams, Brooke Johnson, Amanda Jordan 2.

GPS (48) -- Kamri Chester 9, Carly Morrow 11, C.C. Gordon 5, Marissa Thompson 7, Jennifer Laughlin 2, Brandi Andrews 3, Caitlyn Barringer 3, Codee Bayless, Heather Beckler 6.

Temple.....7 14 10 7 -- 38
GPS........7 23 8 10 -- 48
Three-point goals -- Beckler 2, Thompson, Gordon, Andrews, Barringer, Rector.

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)