It’s hard to believe that Baylor’s Eli Sparkman is just a sophomore, especially after the shooting performance he put on Saturday night.
The Red Raider guard drained six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 24 points to lead his team to a 48-35 victory in the championship game of the annual Best of Preps tournament over rival McCallie. Sparkman was named to the all-tournament team, while teammate Nick Kurtz – who had 16 points in the game – was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
“I was feeling great having a good time out there; I was having fun,” said Sparkman.
“I think there was only one 3-pointer that came off the dribble, so five came from great passes from my teammates, so give credit to them, too. This was fun for the team to get to win this tournament back-to-back, especially for me since I didn’t get to do it last year since I was playing JV.”
Sparkman knocked down big shot after big shot all night, but he saved his daggers for the fourth quarter. With Baylor (8-2) down 29-27 entering the period, Sparkman went 3-for-3 from behind the arc and scored 13 as the Raiders outscored McCallie (6-8) 21-6 in the final frame.
“Eli had a great tournament, and he’s growing up as a player; not bad for a sophomore,” Baylor coach Mark Price said. “The way we work offensively it’s pretty homogenous about where the opportunities come, and I think our guys are really unselfish and they share the ball. As the game developed, they knew who was making shots, and they continued to move the ball one more pass and find (Sparkman). I thought he competed well on both ends of the floor. Everybody wants to talk about him making 3’s, but he had a tough defensive assignment, too, because they have really good guards.”
It was a defensive struggle throughout the game, which was the product of both aggressive defense and poor offense. Both teams had difficulty taking care of the basketball and missed a number of open looks near the basket.
Baylor took control near the end of the first quarter, with Neyland Jean scoring a bucket a few seconds before the buzzer to give the Raiders a 10-6 lead after a period.
McCallie star point guard Eric Rivers helped lead the Blue Tornado back in the second. Slashing and using an array of finishing touches at the basket, the junior scored six of his team-high 15 points in the period. Despite three treys from Baylor, McCallie pulled back to even at 21 apiece heading into halftime.
Switching ends after the break didn’t help the offensive efficiency, as each team continued to struggle in the third quarter. Kurtz kept Baylor in the game with his play in the paint, scoring all six of the Raiders’ points in the stanza.
“He’s very experienced and has great composure,” Price said of Kurtz. “Offensively he never gets sped up much, and he’s a great passer, which really helps when they play him the way they were because he can move the ball and find guys.”
After the two teams combined to go scoreless for a three-minute stretch near the end of the quarter, McCallie’s Trey Hamilton hit a 3-pointer with just under a minute to go to give his team a two-point advantage through three quarters.
Despite only allowing three field goals in the second half – which included holding Rivers scoreless in the final quarter – Price still wasn’t satisfied with his team’s overall defensive effort, attributing much of their success on the scoreboard to missed shots by McCallie.
“We really didn’t shut them down in the first half, they just missed some shots,” said Price. “I really was not pleased with our defensive effort in the first half. We made some adjustments to our game plan, and I thought it helped us in the second half. I thought we just flat-out competed better than we did in the first half. We really challenged them at the end of the third quarter that we didn’t feel like we played with the same competitive edge that we played with against East Hamilton (on Friday). We told them if they didn’t do it, we wouldn’t win. They did it, so I give all the credit to them.”
3rd Place Game
East Hamilton 70, Brainerd 53: The Hurricanes drained nine 3-pointers, four of which came in a 29-point first quarter, on their way to a dominant victory over the Panthers to earn a third-place finish. Jordan Harris scored a game-high 16 points, and was joined in double-figures by teammates Darwin Randolph (15) and Marcus Long (14).
East Hamilton built its 15-point first-quarter lead on the shoulders of Randolph, who scored 11 in the opening frame. East Brainerd settled down in the second quarter, however, and clawed its way back to just a 43-35 deficit at halftime.
“We always discuss getting off to a fast start being an inexperience team,” said East Hamilton coach Andy Webb. “We have unbelievable kids, but we need to develop some toughness; we need to be ready to go. We started fast finally, then after the first quarter I was preaching that we had done nothing and to act like it was 0-0 and have a great second quarter, and we came out flat. Brainerd was the aggressor in the second quarter and did an unbelievable job of dictating the style of play.”
As the Hurricanes’ lead hovered around eight points for much of the first half of the third quarter, Harris took over the game offensively, scoring ten of his team’s 16 points in the period as East Hamilton ran the lead out to 17 points heading into the final stanza.
While East Hamilton hung its hat on its offense in the first half, it was the defense in the second half that made the difference. The Hurricanes allowed just 18 points after the break and forced a slew of turnovers by the Panthers on their way to the comfortable victory.
5th Place Game
Red Bank 59, Stewarts Creek 56: After scoring just six points in the second quarter, Red Bank’s offense needed a spark out of the locker room. Enter LeKerrick Ellison. On the first Lions’ possession of the second half, Ellison caught a back-door lob from Deangelo Ross and threw down the alley-oop dunk.
The play gave Red Bank the spark they needed on offense, as they scored 20 in the quarter and held on for the victory over a disciplined Stewarts Creek team from Smyrna, just south of Nashville. Lucas Brown led the Lions with 16 points, including a thunderous dunk with just over a minute to go in the game.
“These tournaments have been a great opportunity for me to find guys that want to play,” Red Bank coach Nick Fike said, who subbed liberally and gave significant, meaningful minutes to several guys on his bench. “I want guys who don’t care if it’s 2:30 in the afternoon or 8:30 for the championship game; they just say ‘Coach, I love basketball, I’m here, let’s do this.’. We need guys that see this as more of a job and not a hobby.”
“We’re still not where we need to be. We can’t go into Baylor next week or into district play and play like we did tonight. The good thing is that I’ve found out over Christmas which guys are going to play the way they’re supposed to play.”
Stewarts Creek took the lead briefly late in the fourth quarter at 56-55, but Ellison and Brown went 4-of-4 from the free throw line over the final minute to reclaim the advantage before the Red Hawks missed the potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Trevor Chatman had a game-high 17 points for Stewarts Creek, while Bryce Jackson scored 15 and Blake Dixon pitched in 11. Ellison finished the game with 11 points for Red Bank.
7th Place Game
Ooltewah 42, Notre Dame 34: After jumping out to an early lead in the first two games of the tournament only to see that lead evaporate into a loss, the Owls had the Fighting Irish right where they wanted them trailing 11-4 after a quarter.
Ooltewah clawed back to take the lead 24-23 midway through the third quarter, and closed the game on a 13-3 run to complete the comeback victory. Deleon Petty led the way for the Owls with a game-high 16 points, the only player for either team in double-digits.
“Yesterday (against Stewarts Creek), even though we jumped out to a lead I felt like it was fool’s gold because even though the scoreboard said we were ahead, we weren’t do a lot of good things, they were playing harder than we were, and it caught up to us in the end,” said Ooltewah coach Jay Williams. “Today I felt just the opposite, we were doing better things and the scoreboard just didn’t show it yet. We felt like if cleaned up a few things at halftime, we would be alright coming out of the break.”
After tying the game at 31 apiece to start the final period, Petty hit the Owls’ only 3-pointer of the game with 4:13 left that gave Ooltewah the lead for good. The Owls made all eight of their free throws down the stretch and their defense only gave up three points in the period on a trey with eight seconds to go.
Cal Price led Notre Dame with seven points.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SUMMARY
MCCALLIE 6 15 8 6 -- 35
BAYLOR 10 11 6 21 -- 48
MCCALLIE (35) – Eric Rivers 15, Hardy 7, Saizonou 4, Craig 4, Hamilton 3, Self 2.
BAYLOR (48) – Eli Sparkman 24, Nick Kurtz 16, Reap 3, Ebel 3, Jean 2.
3-POINT GOALS: McCallie 2 (Hamilton, Hardy); Baylor 8 (Sparkman 6, Reap, Ebel).
3RD PLACE GAME SUMMARY
BRAINERD 14 21 7 11 -- 53
EAST HAMILTON 29 14 16 11 -- 70
BRAINERD (53) – Terry Jackson, Jr. 12, Wheeler 9, Halfacre Jr. 9, Crawford 8, Lewis Jr. 5, Bates 4, Williams 4, Hubbard 2, Thomas, Broadnax.
EAST HAMILTON (70) – Jordan Harris 16, Darwin Randolph 15, Marcus Long 14, Eller 9, Shropshire 6, Mason 6, Pendleton 4, Karajic, Laboo, Flemmons, Harris, Ellis-Swafford, Scruggs.
3-POINT GOALS: Brainerd 4 (Wheeler 2, Lewis Jr., Halfacre Jr.); East Hamilton 9 (Eller 3, Long 2, Mason 2, Randolph, Harris).
5TH PLACE GAME SUMMARY
STEWARTS CREEK 8 15 17 16 -- 56
RED BANK 17 6 20 16 -- 59
STEWARTS CREEK (56) – Trevor Chatman 17, Bryce Jackson 15, Blake Dixon 11, Manley 8, Reed 3, Severance 2, Davis.
RED BANK (59) – Lucas Brown 16, LeKerrick Ellison 11, Bell 8, Eddins 7, Swafford 7, Jones 6, Trimble 3, Long 1, Ross, Swanson.
3-POINT GOALS: Stewarts Creek 4 (Jackson 2, Dixon, Manley); Red Bank 3 (Brown, Eddins, Trimble).
7TH PLACE GAME SUMMARY
OOLTEWAH 4 12 13 13 -- 42
NOTRE DAME 11 9 11 3 -- 34
OOLTEWAH (42) – Deleon Petty 16, McClurkin 7, Sims 6, Hyndman 5, Williams 4, McHone 2, Mackaluso 2, Corbin, Haynes, Styles.
NOTRE DAME (34) – Price 7, Robinson 6, Vaughn 5, Spurgeon 5, Smith 5, Jones 3, Fillauer 3, Summitt, Wilkerson, Turley.
3-POINT GOALS: Ooltewah 1 (Petty); Notre Dame 6 (Robinson 2, Jones, Spurgeon, Smith, Price).