The annual Best of Preps high school basketball tournament normally held at Chattanooga State during the Christmas break is now in the books and there were some really interesting, close and competitive games during the three day event.
The two championship games on Saturday night were interesting and competitive, just not as close as some of the others.
Chattanooga Christian is the girls champion after defeating Signal Mountain by a convincing 66-44 margin in the first final while the McCallie Blue Tornado weathered a fast finish from the Chattanooga Christian guys before emerging with the 71-61 victory in the final game of the tournament.
There were six consolation games on Saturday prior to the last two. The Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe girls, who were the defending two-time champs, finished seventh after defeating Red Bank by a 60-59 final in the first game of the day. Meigs County finished fifth with a 50-48 win over Baylor while Notre Dame claimed third place with a lopsided 52-30 victory over Tyner.
On the boys side, Brainerd held off East Hamilton by a 65-61 final to finish seventh while Signal Mountain claimed fifth after beating Red Bank, 63-57. The Tyner Rams claimed third with a tough 49-46 win over Notre Dame.
Momo Moore, a talented eighth grader who scored 76 points in three games, was named the MVP for girls after scoring 22 against Signal Mountain. Parker Robison had 48 points in his three games and was named MVP after the McCallie senior scored 16 points in the championship game.
GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP: The Lady Eagles were in a hole before the opening tip as leading scorer and rebounder Carlee Lowry was on a family vacation to Jamaica and not present for the last game. Signal Mountain battled for all they were worth, but simply didn’t have the firepower to match the Lady Chargers as CCS improved to 10-4 overall with their fourth straight win.
CCS coach Laura Cottrell was pleased for the most part after her team claimed the first-place award.
“I’m pleased for them, but I hope we’re not satisfied as we still have a lot of work to do,” she said shortly after the all-tournament awards had been distributed.
“Our role players made some big shots and I was especially pleased with Lili Kay Allen, who really gave us a spark with her defense. I thought she did a good job defending their big girl (Ashlyn Rock) and she also hit a couple of big shots. But I’m really blessed to have guards like Aubriyana Camp and Momo Moore as they make my job easy and they are really special,” Cottrell smiled.
It certainly wasn’t the finish that Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell was hoping for, but she got a chance to get some younger girls some valuable playing time in a tournament where the results don’t have any bearing on the regular season.
“I thought we hung in there with them for a while, but our inexperience finally started to show,” she began.
“I couldn’t ask for a better effort as kids were playing out of position. But we’ve had a great start to our season and this loss tonight won’t minimize that,” she said after her team’s record dropped to 13-3 overall.
Emily Redman scored on a layup to give Signal an early 2-0 lead before the Lady Chargers scored seven of the next nine points as CCS never trailed again. Moore scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the opening two quarters as the CCS lead was 28-25 at intermission.
Ashlyn Rock scored on an inside move to start the second half as the Lady Eagles got within a point, but it was never that close again as the Lady Chargers scored 13 of the next 17 points and were never threatened again.
The difference was 44-27 when the third quarter ended, but the Lady Chargers blew the game open with a 22-7 advantage in the last eight minutes to turn a relatively-close game into a blowout.
While Moore was tops for CCS with her 22 points, Camp was right behind with 20, including 14 in the second half and nine in that last quarter. Rock scored 16 points to lead Signal Mountain after tallying a dozen in the first half.
Signal Mountain did have an unofficial 31-25 edge in rebounding as Emily Redman and Rock both had a dozen each. Jaydah Rainey and Camp both had five for CCS.
BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP: McCallie and Chattanooga Christian are region rivals and will play each other at least two more times this season, so Saturday was just a sneak preview of what those games might look like.
CCS won a big game against Tyner in Friday’s last game, but the Chargers couldn’t come up with the same magic two days in a row. McCallie improved to 13-1 overall with its sixth straight win, so coach Steve Robison was happy for the most part with the way his guys performed.
“It’s never easy with these guys, but it’s always fun when you see their hard work starting to pay off,” he began his post-game comments.
“They have two outstanding guards who can make our life really tough, but we just wanted to make them take some hard shots. I thought we played well for the most part, but had to play through a couple of emotional lulls in the second half.
“We got into a little bit of a rhythm shooting the ball to start the second half and that was nice, but we did what we needed to do to win and I’m happy about that,” Robison nodded.
CCS coach Wes Moore felt like his team really had a productive three days and benefitted greatly from participation, but he was just hoping for a different result in the last game.
“We battled and played hard, but the third quarter was the difference in the game as that’s where they built their lead. But our kids never quit and made it interesting there at the end. It was a heckuva three days for us as we had a really good tournament, so there’s a lot of positives we’ll take away,” he said after his team’s record dropped to 9-6.
Kaleb Gallman nailed a jumper from the key to put McCallie ahead early and the Blue Tornado maintained a slim lead until Dre Jackson put CCS ahead at 13-12 with a drive from the wing. Zach Wescher sank two free throws in the last minute to give the Chargers a 15-14 lead at the first break.
A 3 from Reid Conley and two free throws from Caiden Baldwin allowed the Chargers to build a 20-17 lead in the first minute of the second quarter before McCallie scored nine straight points for a 26-20 lead with 3:23 to play in the first half. Jackson’s two charity tosses at the end trimmed McCallie’s lead to 31-27 at intermission.
The first six minutes of the third quarter were the difference in the game as McCallie used a 16-2 run to build its biggest lead at 47-29 with 2:05 to play.
A slam by Kenneth Chime to start the fourth quarter extended the McCallie lead to 52-36, but that’s when the Chargers got hot from outside.
Hitting six straight 3s in a three-minute stretch, the Chargers got within six at 62-56 with 2:25 left, but it never got any closer as the Blue Tornado sank seven of 10 free throws the rest of the way to withstand the fast finish.
While Robison was named tournament MVP after scoring 16 points, perhaps the biggest difference maker was Chime, pronounced Chee-May, who finished the game with 23 points and 19 rebounds as the Blue Tornado had an unofficial 34-25 edge on the boards. Chime is a senior from Nigeria who has been at McCallie for the last two years and has become a major difference maker for his team.
“Kenneth is a wonderful young man who is an outstanding student and a delight to be around. He’s also our rim protector and a great rebounder, so we’re thankful to have him,” coach Robison praised his 6-7 senior.
Kennebrew was also in double figures with 11 points.
Conley was tops for CCS with 28 points that included seven 3s while Jackson was next with 18.
Jermaine Stinson was the leading rebounder for the Chargers with eight while Baldwin claimed five before fouling out late.
GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARY
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 12 16 16 22 -- 66
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 11 14 12 7 -- 44
CCS (66) – Aubriyana Camp 20, Allen 4, Wiechmann 1, Duble, Momo Moore 22, A. Matthews 4, E. Matthews, Hatten 4, Jaydah Rainey 11.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN (44) – Walker 2, Roberson 5, Clark 7, Redman 8, Ashlyn Rock 16, Bohman 6, Provonsha.
3-Point Goals: CCS 3 (Moore 2, Camp); Signal Mountain 1 (Clark).
GIRLS ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Shy Harrison (Tyner); Dayonna Perryman and Violet Wright (Notre Dame); Emily Redman, Carlee Lowry, Ashlyn Rock (Signal Mountain); Lailani Hatten, Jaydah Rainey, Aubriyana Camp and MVP Momo Moore (Chattanooga Christian).
BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARY
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 15 12 9 25 -- 61
McCALLIE 14 17 19 21 -- 71
CCS (61) -- Reid Conley 28, Dre Jackson 18, Wescher 5, Russell, Roddy, Lyons, Stinson 4, Baldwin 6.
McCALLIE (71) – Bryce Kennebrew 11, Knight 3, Gallman 9, Kenneth Chime 23, Parker Robison 16, Kwasigroch, Wingard 7, Tipton 2.’
3-Point Goals: CCS 10 (Conley 7, Jackson 2, Wescher); McCallie 7 (Kennebrew 2, Knight, Gallman, Robison 2, Wingard).
BOYS ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Jace Herman (Notre Dame); Zion Pinkerton and Rodney Henderson (Tyner); Tre Jackson, Reid Conley and Caiden Baldwin (Chattanooga Christian); Bryce Kennebrew, Kaleb Gallman, Kenneth Chime and MVP Parker Robison (McCallie).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)