Despite being leg-weary going into its third game in six days, the McCallie basketball team had enough depth to outlast Brainerd and claim a 70-60 home win Saturday night.
As has been their tendency this season, the Blue Tornado came at Brainerd in waves, often subbing five for five, and had 14 players get playing time in the first quarter alone. That helped them build an early lead, survive a couple of scoring runs by the Panthers and pull away in the second half.
“We’ve got a lot of players — that’s our strength,” McCallie first-year coach John Shulman said. “I like having plural players who can really play, and we try to wear teams down.
“If we don’t press and try to feed off defense and turnovers, that wouldn’t be very smart because we have a lot of athletic kids who can run and play.”
A 5-0 run to end the first quarter helped McCallie claim its first lead, and junior JayVaughn Craig’s three consecutive 3-pointers pushed the lead to double digits early in the second. But by the midway point of that quarter Brainerd had fought back with a 12-9 run to retake the lead.