McCallie basketball coach John Shulman talks to his players from the bench during Thursday's game with Notre Dame.McCallie got off to a fast start Thursday in its opening game at the Times Free Press Best of Preps basketball tournament. But by late in the third quarter, Notre Dame had clawed its way back into the game.
The Blue Tornado responded with a quick scoring outburst and eventually pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 76-63 victory at Chattanooga State.
McCallie (13-0) will play Van Buren County at 5:30 p.m. today in a semifinal.
"They've got a great player," McCallie coach John Shulman said of Tennessee Tech signee Caden Mills, who scored 41 points in the Eagles' opening overtime victory against Tyner. "They're well-coached. They're very used to winning. They know how to win. They're an old team. They like playing in tournaments like this because it gets them ready to win a state championship. We'll have to be ready."
Notre Dame (10-8) will play Tyner in the losers bracket at 11:30 a.m.
"That's a consolation game," Notre Dame coach Jonathan Adams said. "That's a lot of people's championship game right there. We play a team like McCallie, then turn around and play Tyner. But that's what we want. Later down the road, we're going to lean on that experience."
The Blue Tornado never trailed and owned an 18-4 lead with a little less than three minutes gone by. The Fighting Irish at that point began chipping away at the deficit and had it down to 50-47 when Akil Sledge made a layup with 1:33 left in the third quarter.
McCallie's Jay Gibson shoots over Notre Dame's C.J. Green, left, as Cal Price (20) looks on during their Best of Preps tournament opener Thursday at Chattanooga State. McCallie won 76-63.However, 15 seconds later McCallie got a basket underneath from Neill Dickey before Anthony Watkins made a steal off the press and scored six seconds after that. Another field goal inside by Dickey with 43 seconds to go in the third quarter pushed the lead back to 56-47.
The Blue Tornado led by 10 at the end of the third quarter and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Jay Gibson led McCallie with 17 points. Jr. Clay added 10 and Dickey and Mac Hunt scored nine each. Eight Blue Tornado players made at least one 3-point goal, led by Hunt with three.
McCallie ended up with 11 3s, which is the same total Notre Dame's C.J. Greer and Derwin Lewis had. Greer totaled 30 points and Lewis's 21 were all on 3-pointers.
"I thought their guards were phenomenal, and I wasn't real pleased with ours," Shulman said. "They played hungry. We played pretty. Pretty doesn't help you win a lot of games."
Said Adams: "We shot it well, but we've got to do a much better job of guarding. We're not going to shoot it that well every night."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.