The unranked team looked like the state-ranked team Friday at Baylor.
The Red Raiders entered their game against No. 4 McCallie one game above the .500 mark but more than took care of business against their archrival, pulling away late for a 73-54 victory in the Division II-AA East/Middle Region game.
Now each team turns its focus to the postseason. Baylor (11-9, 5-7) knows seventh-ranked Montgomery Bell Academy is next, but it must wait to hear from the TSSAA about the date and time.
“Now we’ve got to get pointed toward the goal we’ve had all season, and that’s state-tournament time,” Baylor coach Austin Clark said. “I expect us to show back up Monday at 10 a.m. for practice so we can get ready for MBA. That’s what good-caliber teams do.”
McCallie (25-7, 8-4) was coming off a 66-60 loss Tuesday at 10th-ranked Ensworth. Additionally, the Blue Tornado have known they were going to be seeded second in the DII-AA state tournament since last Friday when Ensworth lost to Pope John Paul II.
Coach John Shulman held a lengthy meeting Friday after his team’s third consecutive loss.
“We probably got more out of that meeting than we did the game,” Shulman said. “It’s been a long year. But going into the week, we knew we were the two seed and going to be playing a home game. Ensworth and Baylor didn’t change anything for us.
“We’ve just got to get ready to roll from here.”
As soon as Boris Ristanovic’s layup off a lob from Beyaun Hendricks on the right wing gave the Red Raiders a 7-6 lead, they maintained the advantage the rest of the first half and went to the break ahead 38-33.
Out of the locker room, McCallie got a 3-point goal from Max Shulman followed by back-to-back 3s from Mac Hunt. Meanwhile, the Red Raiders were missing shots from behind the arc, prompting Clark to call a timeout with 5:41 to go in the third quarter with his team trailing by four.
“We talked about getting better shots,” Clark said of his message. “We talked about moving the ball better, like we had done in the first half.”
When Patrick Urey made a 3-point shot from right of the key with 1:18 left in the third, Baylor was up 48-45 and maintained the advantage the rest of the way. Clark acknowledged that the Blue Tornado’s start to the second half could cause an opponent in that spot to fold.
“I think we played with a great deal of confidence tonight,” Clark said. “It’s a rival game, so you can fall into that situation. But I thought we responded well out of that timeout and started back playing together.”
Urey scored 19 points and Hendricks had 18 for the Red Raiders, who ended up 9-of-1o from the free-throw line – all in the final 3:55 – which helped them extend their lead. Ristanovic added 11 points.
Jr. Clay’s 12 points topped McCallie and Henley Edge contributed 10.
“Right now we’re in a better frame of mind than we were four days ago,” Coach Shulman said. “We know we play the JPII-Father Ryan winner. I like our bracket. And the nice thing is we’ve got four or five days. We don’t play again until next Saturday. We’ve got time to rest, and time to work.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.