There was a moment, as they jogged off the court toward their bench during a first-half media timeout, when McCallie's basketball players did a double-take after glancing at the scoreboard. With the Blue Tornado having built a 27-point lead over the nation's second-ranked Oak Hill Academy, almost everyone in the sold-out crowd did the same.
But the visiting Warriors - with a starting lineup that includes four NCAA Division I signees - closed the first half on a 9-0 run, then continued to flex their muscle in the third quarter, outscoring McCallie 33-13 to take their first lead. And though the Blue Tornado regained the lead briefly in the fourth, Oak Hill was simply too much down the stretch and won 79-73 Friday night in the Dr Pepper TEN Classic.
"The front of their jerseys didn't bother us, but the athletes inside those jersey certainly did," McCallie coach John Shulman said. "Those are some grown men on that team. They've got kids from all over the country, but tonight a group of kids from around the Chattanooga area gave them all they wanted.
"That run they made right before the half gave them hope, and they sort of fed off that to start the second half. Our kids made some great memories tonight, so while I'm disappointed that we didn't get the win, I couldn't be prouder of the effort."
McCallie jumped to an 8-0 lead with a pair of 3-pointers by Jr. Clay and Trip Butler and pushed the margin to 11 by the end of the opening quarter. The scoring run extended into the second quarter, reaching 23-0 to lift the hosts to a 36-9 lead midway through the period before the Warriors (34-0) called time out and began chipping away at the deficit.
McDonald's All-American Keldon Johnson, a Kentucky signee, scored seven of his team's nine points to close out the first half and finished with a team-high 24 points. Florida signee Keyontae Johnson scored 10 of his 23 in the third quarter when the Warriors' press gave McCallie fits, leading to five fast breaks off steals.
"There's no excuse for the way we started the game," Keldon Johnson said. "We knew we had to pick up the intensity, and that's what we did right before the half and then kept it going in the third."
David McCormack, a 6-foot-10 Kansas signee, scored nine of his 16 points in the third, including a couple of dunks. Will Richardson, who's headed to play for Oregon, added 13.
Oak Hill had not trailed by more than 15 all season prior to Friday.
"We challenged our guys at halftime," said Oak Hill coach Steve Smith, whose team made 14 of its last 21 field-goal attempts. "We only allow an average of 55 points per game this season, and they had 44 at the half.
"We know we're everybody's big game and we just didn't match their energy for most of the first half. But that run we had right before the half was really big."
After making 7 of 12 3-pointers in the first half, McCallie struggled from the outside in the final two quarters, making 3 of 9, and was hurt by turnovers. Senior guard Clay led all scorers with 27 points for the Blue Tornado (20-4).
"Nobody expected us to play with them the way we did, but we have five seniors who have played in some pretty big games in our career and we just wanted to go at them," Clay said. "This should give us a lot of confidence knowing that we can play with anybody."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.