Early in the fourth quarter, Tuesday's TSSAA Division II-AA East/Middle Region basketball game between No. 2-ranked Brentwood Academy and No. 3-ranked McCallie finally resembled a matchup of top-five teams.
Until the second half, the host Blue Tornado had struggled to stay with the hot-shooting Eagles. But after rallying from a 20-point deficit to within five, McCallie saw BA regroup and go on for a 64-50 victory.
The Eagles improved to 17-1 and 4-0 in the region. McCallie is 18-3, 3-1.
A rematch will take place Feb. 9 at Brentwood Academy.
"I think they're really good," BA coach Hubie Smith said of the Blue Tornado. "They didn't play well in the first half, and we did. These teams are a lot closer than that. It's going to be an absolute war next time."
Led by 13 points from Jeremiah Oatsvall, who finished with 22, the Eagles jumped to a 23-5 lead and utlimately went to halftime up 41-22. Eight of BA's 10 3-point baskets came in the first half.
"When they shoot the ball like that," McCallie coach John Shulman said, "any team is going to have a tough time beating them."
The Blue Tornado's rally included a 20-point third quarter and a 12-0 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters and left the score 53-48 after Junior Clay made the first of two free throws with 6:18 to play.
Shulman chalked the rally up to the combination of a strategic move of scrapping their full-court defense plus putting forth a better effort.
"We just backed it up, started playing straight man and got some stops," Shulman said. "Also, you back any competitor into a corner and they're either going to wilt or fight, and we fought."
Although Smith said it wasn't inteded to be such, the Eagles' offense morphed into somewhat of a delay with a little less than five minutes to go with a seven-point lead. In the final 2:32, BA made 9 of 10 free throws and got the rebound on the miss.
"We were just trying to draw them out and get something easy," Smith said. "The kids really showed a lot. I think we had the ball most of the last five minutes."
Oatsvall, who quarterbacked BA to a state championship in football season, had four 3-point goals and fellow guard and highly touted college basketball prospect Darius Garland made three in scoring 15 points. Reserve Cam Johnson contributed two 3-pointers and 10 points.
Adrian Thomas topped the Blue Tornado with 18 points. His best scoring support was seven by Max Shulman, who had two of McCallie's four 3s.
"I think the moment got a little too big for us," Coach Shulman said. "But we tried not to make it such a big deal. We said it's just another game, just another game. But kids aren't stupid."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/ KelleySmiddie.