It may have been the first Waffle House MLK King of the Court, but the one-day high school basketball event felt anything but new.
Two old rivals were pitted against one another inside the classic Maclellan Gymnasium, and Chattanooga Christian beat Boyd-Buchanan 59-27.
"The rivalry goes way back, and we're in this historic gym," CCS coach Eddie Salter said. "We've had many, many team camps in here, and the Boyd-Buchanan coach (event organizer Daniel Gilbert) has a young team, while I have an older team, but neither team gave up. They worked hard. It was a great way to cap off M.L. King Day."
That experience was pivotal for Salter's Chargers. The game featured seven lead changes in the first three minutes as the teams jockeyed for control early and both offenses scored on nearly every possession.
The game changed when the Chargers switched from a matchup-zone to man-to-man defense. They continued to extend their lead.
"I think that was in large part due to the switch," senior Ryan Rhodes said. "We went man-to-man and started switching on all the dribble handoffs and all the screens, and that's a big part of their offense. That really helped slow them down, and put us in good position."
With three seconds left in the opening quarter, Rhodes' brother John drove to the basket and was fouled. He made both free throws, and the elder Rhodes stole the inbounds pass and made a 3-pointer at the horn to extend the CCS lead to 23-13.
Forward Ben Moore outscored the entire young Buccaneers team 12-4 in the second quarter highlighted by a tomahawk dunk late in the half to give the Chargers a 40-17 lead.
The Chargers won each of the final two quarters to improve to 15-2 for the season. Boyd-Buchanan dropped to 5-9, but Gilbert saw much to be proud of from his team.
"We don't talk about winning or losing at all, because that's not part of us," Gilbert said. "We're big into process and culture. We're building a process, and yeah, we are young but that's not an excuse. Our kids play hard. They're locked in, and there are things you just have to go through as part of the growth, and adversity is a part of that."
* East Hamilton girls 53, CCS 20: Led by freshman point-forward Madison Hayes, the Lady Hurricanes remained undefeated in 2017.
Hayes led all scorers with 14 points junior Hailey Abernathy scored 12 on four 3-pointers, two at the buzzers ending the first and third quarters.
The team started 2017 with wins over Baylor, Cleveland and Walker Valley and now are 8-9 for the season.
"When we were up at Riverdale over Christmas (for the State Farm Classic), that was some tough, tough competition. I mean real tough," East Hamilton coach Hunter Gremore said. "I think for us, playing at that level and just seeing (those teams) I think our team saw that we have to step up our game if we ever want to get to that level, and our girls, we want to get there."
* GPS 51, Van Buren County 45: Van Buren stayed within striking distance and nearly pulled off an upset, but junior Mackenzie Jennings kept GPS in front.
The Eaglettes stayed within a possession or two throughout most of the game but were not able to take the lead. The Eaglettes tied it late in the third quarter, but a Bruisers 3-pointer put GPS back ahead to stay.
Jennings led GPS with 15 points while fellow junior Brooke McCurdy scored 13.
Van Buren was led by Mallery Christian, who scored her 15 points in the second half. Hannah Sullivan added 14.
"We talked at every timeout and every chance we could about the importance of each possession in a game like this," GPS coach Wes Moore said. "There's a big difference in being up four and being up two. Our girls did a really good job defensively, and we did a little better job rebounding in the second half and that comes from the effort they put forth."
* East Hamilton boys 75, Van Buren County 52: The Hurricanes never trailed, opening a 16-point lead late in the first half before going to halftime up 30-19.
"I knew we had more players and a little more athleticism," East Hamilton coach Rodney English said. "We wanted to push it right from the start."
Van Buren got within 34-29 on Caden Mills' three-point play at 5:27 of the third quarter, but the Hurricanes closed the period with an 18-6 run and cruised from there.
English used a timeout early in that run. "We were focusing on the officials," he said."We just needed to regroup, and that helped get us going again."
Noah Fager's 20 points led the 'Canes. DaVae Hughley added 14.
Mills scored the Eagles' first 10 points, and their first field goal from a different player was Jared Binkley's low-post basket 1:46 before halftime. Mills totaled 31 points, including 8-of-8 free-throw shooting.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653.
Contact Mark Pace at 423-757-6361 or mpace@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheMarkPace and on Facebook facebook.com/TheMarkPace.