The Boyd-Buchanan Buccaneers let a big first half be sufficient as they defeated visiting McCallie on Thursday night
McCallie scored the first two points on a putback by Alex Clark in the first minute, but the Bucs got rolling and never looked back as they posted their second-straight win by a score of 67-51.
With Austin Walker scoring half of his 14 points in the opening quarter, the Bucs went on a 11-2 run following Clark's bucket and the difference was 17-9 when the first stanza ended.
The Bucs shifted their offense to the outside in the second quarter where they sank four 3-pointers for a commanding 39-22 difference at intermission.
Q.D. Cox scored for the Bucs to open the second half before McCallie went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 11 at 41-30, but the veteran Bucs didn't panic and scored the next 11 points to end any questions of a possible Blue Tornado comeback.
Zach Jenkins scored on a short turnaround bank shot before Justus McMillan sank a pair of free throws and then a jumper from the line as Boyd-Buchanan enjoyed its biggest lead of the game at 63-39 with 6:27 to play.
McCallie kept battling and was able to get that lead down to 16 points before the Bucs held possession for most of the final three minutes without taking another shot.
"This was a good test for our kids, but Boyd-Buchanan has a very good team and they shot the ball extremely well tonight," said McCallie coach Dan Wadley shortly after the game ended.
"I know that we can play a lot better, but I just wanted to see how we responded to two games in three days. It's a long season and it can't be judged by one game, but they deserved to win as we lost our intensity at times and we missed some assignments.
"We cut it to 11 at the start of the third, but all of a sudden, it was back to 17. We're still missing several football players, but they taught us a few things tonight. There was certainly no lack of effort on our part and I was pleased in spurts by how we played," Wadley added.
Cole Rose is starting his fifth season as the Buccaneer head coach and he has a veteran lineup with seven seniors. He's expecting a lot from these guys this season and he was all smiles when this one ended.
"I really liked what I saw tonight as I get to leave the gym happy," Rose began.
"Of course, I still saw about 100 things that we can do better, but I don't question our effort. McCallie is physically bigger than us, but we did a good job of making adjustments inside. We have seven seniors who play well together and Hall was cleared to start playing today," he continued, referring to Hall Allen, the quarterback of the team who has been sidelineed following foot surgery this summer.
"I just wanted to see us make some improvement and I think I did, but I love coaching these guys. Cade Evans has been a surprise for us. He's a freshman, but he's not the least bit scared when we put him in the game," Rose added.
Zach Jenkins scored 17 points to lead the Buccaneer offense while Walker followed with 14 and McMillan finished with a dozen.
Jordan Atkins was the scoring leader for McCallie with 16 points. Jack Baird came off the bench to score 11 while Chauncey Alfred and Clark both finished with eight points.
McCallie won the rebound batlte by a 35-31 margin. Clark matched his jersey number with 13 while Atkins snagged eight.
McMillan and Jenkins both had eight for the Buccaneers while Walker finished with six.
McCallie returns to action on Tuesday with a home game against North Cobb Christian while Boyd-Buchanan will be on the road to face the Chattanooga Patriots.
McCALLIE 9 13 17 12 -- 51
BOYD-BUCHANAN 17 22 18 10 -- 67
McCallie (51) -- Chalkley, Moxey 6, Alfred 8, Im, Clark 8, Jacoway, Baird 11, Atkins 16, Ferguson 2, Littlejohn.
Boyd-Buchanan (67) -- Cox 6, Arendale 5, Walker 14, McMillan 12, Jenkins 17, Evans 6, Nason 7.
3-Point Goals: McCallie 6 (Moxey, Alfred, Baird 2, Atkins 2); Boyd-Buchanan 6 (Arendale, Walker 2, Jenkins, Evans 2).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)