McCallie's Mac Hunt puts up a three against visiting Brentwood Academy Tuesday night. Hunt led the Blue Tornado with 12 points, but the Eagles were prolific from beyond the arc as they connected for 18 threes in their 81-46 spanking of McCallie.
photo by Dennis Norwood
The McCallie Blue Tornado basketball team came off a weekend where they played the nation’s second-ranked team to a seven-point game and they followed that with an overtime win over Hamilton Heights, another nationally ranked prep team.
Without question the best team in Chattanooga, the third-ranked Blue Tornado entered Tuesday night’s game with Tennessee’s top-ranked Division II team feeling pretty good about themselves before crashing back to earth with a solid thud.
The Brentwood Academy Eagles, who just happen to be the two-time defending state champs in their classification, put on a clinic at the McCallie Sports and Activities Center and the result was an 81-46 blowout by the studs from Middle Tennessee.
The Eagles put on a shooting display like none other as they finished the game with 18 field goals from beyond the arc. They were an amazing 64 percent on 18 of 28 from long range.
The game was close for the first four minutes, but the Eagles took charge from that point and it was never close again.
“We played a little bit better than the last time you saw us play,” Brentwood Academy coach Hubie Smith said of his team’s 10-point win at Baylor a couple of weeks ago.
“We have a great shooting team, but we also play great defense at times and the turnovers we forced in the first quarter led to a lot of open 3-point shots in transition. We knew that McCallie had played well this weekend, but this was a statement game for us and we played really well on both ends.
“We defended well as we were really active on that end, so I was happy about that, but this is probably the best we’ve played in a long time,” Smith said after his team had improved to 23-2 overall and 8-0 in Middle-East Region play.
Kam Lyons and Jeremiah Oatsvall had back-to-back 3s for the Eagles while McCallie came out hot as well with consecutive long shots from Mac Hunt and another from Junior Clay that had the Blue Tornado within 10-9 midway through the first quarter.
The Eagles then went on a 16-1 run in the final four minutes for a 26-10 lead after one quarter.
An 8-0 run to start the second extended the difference to 34-10 following a layup from Cam Johnson before McCallie responded with an 8-0 run of its own to get within 34-18 with five minutes left in the half following another 3 from Hunt.
The difference was 43-18 at intermission as the Eagles had connected on 11 of 18 from beyond the arc at that point.
BA’s lead was 30 following back-to-back 3s from Lyons early in the third quarter and the lead was 63-32 following a bucket by Tate Pierson with 1:51 left in the quarter before McCallie finished the stanza on a 9-0 run to get within 63-41 with eight minutes remaining.
Jorden Starling scored on a nice inside move with 7:26 to play as the lead was 66-44 at that point, but the Eagles finished the game on a 15-2 run to win going away.
McCallie coach John Shulman could only shake his head when the final horn sounded.
“I just wish that people around here fully understood just how good those guys are. That number 10 (Darius Garland) is a pro running the point and he did a great job of finding open shooters, but they had a rare night shooting the basketball,” Shulman praised after his team had dropped to 25-5 overall and 8-2 in region play.
“That game really wasn’t about our kids. Brentwood Academy is the best defensive team in the state and they’re mighty special on offense as well. We have a really good team and have been playing well lately. We’ve lost to these guys twice now, but we just have to figure out a way to beat them one time,” the coach concluded, knowing that next chance would probably come in the state finals at Lipscomb University later this month.
Lyons finished with 20 points as the Eagles had five players in double figures.
Oatsvall had 15 and Garland 14 while Garrett Suedebum and Pierson both finished with 10.
Hunt was the leading scorer for McCallie with a dozen as he was the only Blue Tornado player in double figures. Clay was next with eight while Robert Riddle finished with seven.
The Eagles had an unofficial 21-15 edge on the boards as Garland grabbed six for his team whihle Shulman had six for McCallie.
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY GIRLS 64, GPS 25: The top-ranked Lady Eagles are also pretty good as they rolled past the Bruisers by a 39-point margin.
A 19-7 lead after the first quarter was 31-10 at the break. The Bruisers had their best quarter in the third when they just got outscored 16-15, but the fourth was another story as the Lady Eagles scored 17 and kept GPS scoreless.
The Lady Eagles, now 21-5 overall and 10-1 in region play, got 12 points from Sydni Harvey while Maggie Brown and Kallie Searcy were next with 10 each. Bria Dial added nine while Avery Kovick tossed in eight for a balanced attack.
Junior Brooke McCurdy, who was honored in the second half for surpassing the 1,000 point career mark in a recent game, was the scoring leader for the Bruisers with nine points. Mackenzie Jennings was next with six.
GPS falls to 13-13 and 2-9 with the loss
GIRLS SUMMARY
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY 19 12 16 17 -- 64
GIRLS PREPARATORY SCHOOL 7 3 15 0 -- 25
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY (64) – Harvey 12, Brown 10, Stockhoff 6, Schoenwald 4, Kovick 8, Fay 4, Dial 9, Searcy 10, Morrisey, Bussard 1.
GPS (25) – Wyatt, Dunigan 2, Jennings 6, Smith 3, Priest 2, McCurdy 9, Wahler, Berce, Love.
3-POINT GOALS: Brentwood Academy 4 (Harvey 2, Brown, Kovick); GPS 4 (McCurdy 3, Smith).
BOYS SUMMARY
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY 26 17 20 18 -- 81
McCALLIE 10 8 23 5 -- 46
BRENTWOOD ACADEMY (81) – Lyons 20, Garland 14, Archie 2, Suedebum 10, Oatsvall 15, Schoenwald 2, Johnson 2, McDonald 3, Mtetwa 3, Pierson 10, Pittner.
McCALLIE (46) – Starling 4, Watson 4, Clay 8, Gibson 3, Hewitt 1, Edge 3, Shulman 4, Clark, Hunt 12, Lewis, Butler, Riddle, Watkins.
3-POINT GOALS: Brentwood Academy 18 (Lyons 6, Garland 2, Suedebum, Oatsvall 5, McDonald, Mtetwa, Pierson 2); McCallie 11 (Clay 2, Gibson, Edge, Shulman, Hunt 4, Riddle 2).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)