In the end, the spotlight game in the first Waffle House MLK King of the Court event presented by the Chattanooga Area Basketball Club left one team in the dark.
Monday's fifth and final high school basketball game at Maclellan Gymnasium was between Calhoun and McCallie. The Yellow Jackets were unable to overcome their slow start, or the Blue Tornado's fast start, or a combination of the two, and McCallie coasted to an 80-55 victory.
McCallie (19-2), the top-ranked team in the Associated Press TSSAA Division II poll, scored the first 11 points on the way to an 18-1 lead midway through the first quarter. The Blue Tornado had a 27-point first quarter and scored 50 points by halftime.
"We made some shots," McCallie coach John Shulman said. "The nice thing about playing people you don't see all the time is they're not used to us. Hopefully we would get the chance to speed them, get them playing a little wild. We did a pretty good job trapping and got them sped up a little. That's the way we like to play."
Even with all the points allowed in the first 16 minutes, Calhoun (13-4) was within 34-28 after Malik Lawrence made a 3-point shot from left of the key 5:04 before halftime.
"It's a big step forward knowing they don't have any quit in them," Calhoun coach Vince Layson said of his players.
However, McCallie held the Yellow Jackets to four points the rest of the half.
Calhoun's last gasp was scoring the first four points of the second half to get within 14. Then the Blue Tornado's 15-8 close to the period had them up 65-44 going to the fourth.
"We did some little things that got us some extra baskets," Shulman said. "We made some hustle plays we work on."
Sixteen played and 13 scored for McCallie, which was led by Max Shulman's 20 points. Henley Edge, who made a 3-pointer from each wing to get the scoring started, ended with 13 points. Reserve post player Jay Gibson's 11 helped the Blue Tornado's 32-11 edge in bench scoring.
"We didn't rebound the ball well," Layson said. "Most teams we play we can match up size-wise. We had a disadvantage in size. Rebounding is about positioning and want-to. When they finally did miss shots, they got the boards. That's a bad combination."
Lawrence made six shots from behind the arc and scored 22 points for the Yellow Jackets, who were 27-1 in Georgia Class AAA games last season with the loss being in a state quarterfinal. Chapin Rierson contributed 11.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653.