Baylor’s Tylan Martin takes a shot over McCallie’s Terrance Wilson (25) and Jamaal Calvin (12) Saturday evening at McCallie.McCallie’s game plan for Saturday’s Division II-AA East Middle Region high school basketball game against rival Baylor consisted of three elements. Those were execution, effort and excitement.
The overflow crowd at McCallie helped with the excitement. The Blue Tornado’s effort helped get them the lead, and their execution down the stretch enabled them to defeat the Red Raiders 44-36.
McCallie (12-3, 3-0) took the lead for good at 14-11 when Cordell James made a 3-point shot from the left corner off an inbound pass from underneath. Those were his only points until he scored seven in the fourth quarter.
Baylor managed to stay in contention and was within 37-31 when it put the Blue Tornado in the bonus with 1:21 remaining. Although C.J. Reese, who led with 18 points, missed the front end of McCallie’s second one-and-bonus opportunity, the Blue Tornado’s Chad Lee maneuvered his way to the baseline, rebounded the ball and got it to a teammate before falling out of bounds.
“It could’ve been that it was our third game in four days,” Baylor coach Austin Clark said. “They were just a little quicker to the ball tonight.”