McCallie, the 2015 Best of Preps basketball tournament champion, put on a dominating show for the first 13 minutes of its first-round game against Central on Wednesday night.
It was the final 19 minutes, however, that concerned John Shulman. While his Blue Tornado went on to win 65-47 in a rematch of last year's tournament title game, the veteran coach was not pleased with a noticeable drop in execution after building an early 30-point lead.
"I liked the start, I did not like the ending," Shulman said. "I have a different outlook than most. We're not just trying to win games, we're trying to get better and follow a process that we did not do tonight. We won the game and we get to move on, but it will be an interesting team meeting and film session tomorrow.
"We came out with good energy and stayed down in our traps, but then sooner or later you have to guard, and we were unable to do that. We tried to do too much offensively, and we couldn't keep things simple."
McCallie (9-1), which will face Meigs County in a semifinal at 8:30 tonight, put on a clinic in the first period. Led by a trapping defense that forced 11 first-quarter turnovers, the Blue Tornado scored the game's first 19 points. Six of the points came directly off steals, including a pair from Mac Hunt, while Max Shulman added a 3-pointer and short jumper off transition.
A pair of Henley Edge 3-pointers in the second quarter pushed the lead to 41-11, but Central closed with six consecutive points as coach Rick Rogers implored his team to keep hustling.
The momentum was short-lived as McCallie scored the first eight points of the second half, but from that point the Purple Pounders (1-5) outscored the Tornado 28-16 as 6-foot-8 post McClendon Curtis started imposing his will inside.
Curtis finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds, but McCallie's lead went under 20 only in the final seconds. Edge had 14 points to lead 11 McCallie scorers, and he also had four of the team's 17 steals.
"Our kids don't get to play locally a whole lot, so when we do we lose our minds, and tonight we did a great job losing our minds," Shulman said. "I'm also a very hard critic, so while most people are excited to get out of here with a win, maybe in my next lifetime I can be like that."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.