The best part about having youthful talent is that regardless of the inexperience, eventually it becomes veteran talent.
Despite having just one starter back from last year, there is talent to work with for the Baylor boys' basketball team, and it showed Friday night in the opening round of the Best of Preps tournament.
Maturing by the minute, the Red Raiders overcame an early deficit and pulled away to beat Ooltewah 63-54 and advance to tonight's semifinal round.
"There is talent there. They just need to slow down a little," Baylor coach Austin Clark said. "A tournament like this is huge for a young team because they get the experience of playing quality competition on back-to-back days.
Photo Gallery
Cornerstone Pub - Special Olympics Fundraiser
Crowds filled tables and the bar at Cornerstone Pub Thursday during a fundraising event for Special Olympics.
"We've got a lot of new people, guys who were role players last year or are just new to the game in general, so this will really help in a lot of areas."
Ooltewah led by eight in the first quarter, but Baylor fought back to within three by the end of the period and midway through the second had an eight-point lead of its own when Will Snead sank a 3-pointer.
After Ooltewah rallied to tie the game early in the fourth, the Red Raiders (4-2) answered with a 7-0 run and maintained a steady lead the rest of the way.
As evidence of just how quickly the young Red Raiders are progressing, freshman wing Patrick Urey led all scorers with 24 points, including a nice move to shake a defender on the baseline for a dunk and later a 3-pointer.
"This atmosphere will really help us, playing in front of a big crowd against good teams," Urey said. "I used to be more of an inside player, but I've been working on developing an outside shot to be more complete.
"A win like this will really help our confidence going into the rest of the season."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.