McCallie Blue Tornado spurt past Walker Valley Mustangs

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - After his team played Walker Valley in the MurMaid Mattress Cleveland Classic high school basketball tournament Wednesday at Lee University, McCallie basketball coach John Shulman said his Blue Tornado had "spurtability." But in the third quarter, that looked more like overwhelmability.

Scoring more points in the first period of the second half than they did the entire first half, the Blue Tornado pulled away and defeated the Mustangs 58-45 in one of six games in the second of the two-day competition.

McCallie (5-0) led most of the first half but trailed 23-22 at the break after Walker Valley's Bryce Nunnelly made two free throws 21.9 seconds before halftime. The teams swapped the lead over the first few minutes of the second half with Josh Jones converting a three-point play at the 4:33 mark that put Walker Valley ahead for the last time at 29-28.

What ensued was "spurtability" exaggerated in the form of a 26-0 run that started with Seth Clark scoring underneath halfway through the third and didn't end until the Mustangs' Kenny Bunton made two free throws with 6:26 to play.

"We can run a lot of guys at you," said Shulman, who played all 15 who were in uniform. "We're going to keep going at you, and then all of a sudden we're playing at a speed we want to play with."

The Blue Tornado responded to a 4-0 deficit at the start with a 12-2 run. But from there, Walker Valley (1-3) outscored them 17-8 the rest of the half.

"We can get things going our way," Shulman said. "Then just as quick we can look not real sharp. To beat a really good Walker Valley team without being at our best says we're on the right track."

Of his team's third-quarter collapse, Walker Valley coach Bob Williams put as much blame on shot selection as turnovers.

"They dictate where they want the ball to go with their traps and stuff," Williams said. "You can't run your normal offense with them doing that. When we were patient and got the ball to open people, we were OK. When we were impatient, it worked right into their hands.

"When we did turn it over, we weren't getting stops. We were giving them easy baskets. We weren't attacking the basket like we did in the second quarter with our press break. We're learning. We're trying to figure it out."

The game's only double-figure scorers were Bunton with 12 points and Jones with 11.

Fourteen McCallie players scored, led by Adrian Thomas, who had all eight of his points in the third quarter. Jordan Atkins added seven and Alex Clark, who drew praise from Shulman for his play, and Jonathan Hewitt contributed six apiece.

"We have no superstars," Shulman said. "You've got to check egos at the door for us to be successful. Everybody has to be happy about what McCallie does instead of being happy about themselves."

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.

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