There’s more than one way to win a basketball game, something McCallie coach Kenneth White reminded his team of at halftime of the Blue Tornado’s semifinal at the Times Free Press Best of Preps tournament Saturday night at Chattanooga State.
Trailing an inspired Red Bank team 31-20, the Blue Tornado, at White’s request, turned up the pressure defensively and stopped settling for 3-point shots on the offensive end. The combination was enough for them to pull out a 55-49 overtime win.
The Blue Tornado (12-3) will face Boyd Buchanan in Monday’s championship game at 8:30 p.m. The Buccaneers rallied to defeat Tyner 60-46 in the second semifinal.
“We didn’t really have to say a lot at halftime, but the big thing is we felt they were too comfortable on the offensive end and we wanted to disrupt them a little bit,” said White, whose team made just one shot from behind the arc in the game.
“To make one 3-pointer and to get a win is extremely abnormal for any team, but we’ll take it. We’ve shown some resiliency all year, so we’ve been able to battle back in games, and tonight, fortunately, it was no different.”