There will be a new boys' champion at the Best of Preps basketball tournament Saturday night.
East Hamilton rallied from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to force overtime before pulling away in the second extra session for a 63-58 win over McCallie on Thursday night at Chattanooga State.
The victorious Hurricanes (11-2) will face Tyner in tonight's second semifinal game at 8:30 Chattanooga State, while the Blue Tornado (8-4) - who had won three straight Best of Preps titles - will go against Notre Dame in a 2:30 p.m. consolation game.
"We kind were kind of flat starting out," East Hamilton coach Frank Jones said. "We hadn't played since the 15th, but I didn't think we would start that flat. But our guys kept their composure and we kept fighting. Our defense really brought us through in the second half, and we started penetrating their defense."
McCallie's relentless pressure, coupled with the long layoff, had East Hamilton reeling in a first half the Tornado exited with a 21-14 lead. The Canes had more turnovers (11) than made field goals (5).
"We didn't execute our offense well in the first half, but we kept plucking and plucking and pulled it out," Jones said. "Their defense pushed us closer to the half-court line, so we couldn't penetrate much."
The rally nearly started too late, though. With East Hamilton trailing by 10 at the end of three quarters, back-to-back layups by McCallie's Tony Jackson and Anthony Watkins pushed their team's lead to 41-27 in the first minute of the fourth. Cam Montgomery, Jamaal Walker and East Hamilton's suddenly smothering defense then took over.
The guards combined for 17 consecutive points to end regulation. Each found success with strong drives, including consecutive layups by first Montgomery and then Walker to cut the lead to 43-41 with three minutes to play.
McCallie's Neil Dickey momentarily silenced the comeback with a rebound putback that became a three-point play, but Montgomery answered with a twisting drive he finished with his hand with 1:58 to play to make it a three-point game.
He completed the rally with 33 seconds to play with a 25-foot 3-pointer, which stood up to send the game to overtime when the Tornado missed a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Canes held a four-point lead in the first overtime, but back-to-back baskets by Shannon Walker - the second a flip over his head as he was falling down after an offensive rebound - forced a second overtime.
East Hamilton held a one-point lead with 1:34 to play when Montgomery went down with a muscle cramp after another hard drive, but sub Darwin Randolph picked right up with a drive for a 59-56 lead. McCallie missed three consecutive 3-point attempts in the next minute, and Murrell Schramm helped seal the win with a layup off one final assist from Walker.
"I'm very proud of the way they kept playing and working hard to pull this one out," Jones said. "We told them to just keep running our offense. We have plenty of guys who can take guys one on one, so we started taking advantage of some of the matchups.
"We'll see what we can do tomorrow against a good Tyner ballteam. It depends on how much steam was taken out of us tonight."
Montgomery led all scorers with 23 points, 19 coming after halftime, with Walker adding 16 and the active Schramm chipping in 10 points and 16 rebounds.
Eric Rivers led McCallie with 13 points, followed by John Hardy with 10.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.