In the end, the spotlight game in the first Waffle House MLK King of the Court event presented by the Chattanooga Area Basketball Club left one team in the dark.
Monday’s fifth and final high school basketball game at Maclellan Gymnasium was between Calhoun and McCallie. The Yellow Jackets were unable to overcome their slow start, or the Blue Tornado’s fast start, or a combination of the two, and McCallie coasted to an 80-55 victory.
McCallie (19-2), the top-ranked team in the Associated Press TSSAA Division II poll, scored the first 11 points on the way to an 18-1 lead midway through the first quarter. The Blue Tornado had a 27-point first quarter and scored 50 points by halftime.
“We made some shots,” McCallie coach John Shulman said. “The nice thing about playing people you don’t see all the time is they’re not used to us. Hopefully we would get the chance to speed them, get them playing a little wild. We did a pretty good job trapping and got them sped up a little. That’s the way we like to play.”
Even with all the points allowed in the first 16 minutes, Calhoun (13-4) was within 34-28 after Malik Lawrence made a 3-point shot from left of the key 5:04 before halftime.