BRISTOL, Tenn – Kaleb Meredith will use his left arm to throw strikes for the University of Tennessee baseball team beginning next fall.
He used his same arm to torch Tennessee High and ruin the debut of first year head coach Michael McMeans on Friday night, scoring a career-high 49 point to lead the Bucs to an 84-75 win over the Vikings at Viking Hall.
McMeans had just three points after one quarter and the Bucs trailed 19-14. He was the show the rest of the way, scoring 17, 14 and 15 over the final three periods. He connected on four 3-pointers, eight from inside the arc and was 21-for-25 from the free throw line.
“It was just my teammates making plays for me and helping get me open and just taking advantage of our game plan,” Meredith said. “The coaches did a great job in practice.”
Tennessee High, playing its first game under McMeans, who left Sullivan South to replace Robby Witcher after last season, lost much of its production from last season, but took an early 13-4 lead, led by a couple of 3-pointers from Witcher’s son, Wade, who led the Vikings with 22 points.
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“They have a lot of talent and I love Coach McMeans,” University High head coach Herman Rice said. “When he was at South we talked a lot last year and I am a big fan of his. He is a great coach. It is a win for our program, we expect to come into these places and compete and I attribute that back to Coach Bentley when he was head coach here, he put them in that situation.”
University High followed up a four-point loss to Unicoi County on Thursday by refusing to be intimidated by Viking Hall, which had a limited number mask-wearing fans who also following social distance protocols due to coronavirus concerns.
“It is a huge win. We try not to back down from anybody,” Meredith said. “We want to be up there with the big dogs and not be thought of as a little school. We just wanted to come out, if we lost, we lost, just give it all we have and it worked out.”
There were five lead changes and four ties in the second quarter, with the Bucs taking a 40-39 lead into the break. Two more lead changes followed in the third before Meredith began to help the Bucs pull away, taking a 62-56 lead after three periods and the built the lead to as much as nine down the stretch.
Meredith displayed a smooth stroke, both from the field, and also took advantage of plenty of second half foul calls, resulting in three Vikings leaving with five fouls.
“I don’t think [being lefthanded] gives me no huge advantage, maybe driving to the rim on the first few possessions of the game, people might expect I am more dominant right, but I think after that people get it,” Meredith said. I guess it is just muscle memory, I don’t even think about it anymore.”
Meredith’s performance wasn’t anything Rice hadn’t seen before.
“That is the kind of player he is. He is used to having the ball and he wants the ball, that is what makes him a special player. He has led our program to the state tournament, the substate tournament, he is a returning all-state player,” Rice said. “I wish people would get to know him because he is a better human being than he is player.”
Some might be surprised by the small school Bucs taking down the big school Vikings. Not the Bucs.
“Last year we played Oak Hill, second ranked team in the nation, we played two or three teams ranked in the top five of the state,” Rice said. “The parents were like ‘why are you playing those kids and those teams’ and it’s for this reason, that we can walk into any gym and feel like we can compete.”
While McMeans was unavailable after the game as deadline approached, Rice had good words for the first-year head coach, who will lead the Vikings against both South Greene and Johnson County in the Hall of Champions today at Daniel Boone.
Nysaiah Foote added 15 points for Tennessee High. The next highest scorer for University High was John Carter with eight points.
“Hats off to Coach McMeans, I consider him a good friend and a good man and Tennessee High is going to be fine, they have got phenomenal athletes,” Rice said. “We had trouble guarding them.”