McCallie basketball coach John Shulman expressed that his players are invested in the team this season. Whatever investments they've made so far are paying big dividends.
With playing time routinely spread among all the players -- Monday at Hixson it was 16 -- McCallie won its 12th game against no losses, beating Central 67-54 and adding the EPB Fiber Optic tournament championship to its list of accomplishments in Shulman's first year.
Thirteen players scored for McCallie, led by Adrian Thomas with 16 points.
"Our advantage is our depth," Shulman said. "As long as our kids check their egos at the door, it's a lot of fun."
JaVaughn Craig added 12 points, but it's not the offensive end where the Blue Tornado's depth is most advantageous. It's the 94-foot defense they play.
"All we're trying to do is find the breaking point other teams have. It's hard to do it time after time," Shulman said of dealing with McCallie's press.
Central (7-2) dealt with it for three quarters and entered the fourth tied with the Blue Tornado at 48.
"It was a little quicker than I wanted because of our lack of depth," Central coach Rick Rogers said of the pace of play. "I said in a 24-minute game I thought we could've beaten them. I knew a 32-minute game was going to be tough. We lost our legs a little bit in the fourth quarter. We started missing shots we normally make. We played so hard breaking the press, it took some of our energy away."
It didn't help the Purple Pounders that standout forward Ryan Montgomery fouled out with 4:49 to play. But they were already down nine and it went to 62-52 when Jordan Atkins completed the three-point play on Montgomery's fifth foul.
"Really credit them and how they played," Shulman said of the Pounders. "They have some athletic and talented guys. I'm proud of our guys and how they played to win the game. They did a nice job."
Shulman used "phenomenal" when describing the play by Montgomery, whose 28 points went to the bench when he was disqualified on fouls.
"He's one of the main reasons people come to watch us play," Rogers said.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.