Amidst a sellout crowd of 1,500+ in the confines of Chattanooga State’s gymnasium, two of the area’s best private school squads, McCallie and Boyd Buchanan, faced off January 5 in the Times Free Press Best of Preps final.
McCallie, 48 hours removed from a 55-49 overtime win over Red Bank in the semifinals, came ready to start 2026 with a bang and enter region play on a roll, ultimately prevailing 62-52 after a 29-24 halftime lead.
“At halftime, we made an emphasis on not fouling,” said McCallie head coach Kenneth White after watching the Blue Tornado improve to 13-4 on the season. “We wanted to stop putting them on the foul line and make them earn it. We put them on the line way too much in the first half and wanted to keep pressuring them but do it without fouling.”
McCallie came out hot, quickly grabbing an early 9-3 first-quarter lead. A three-pointer to open the scoring from senior Trell Knight, who was awarded the event's Most Outstanding Player Award and had 14 points on the night, set the tone.
Ahead 14-8 heading into the second quarter, McCallie and Boyd went basket for basket before heading to halftime with McCallie up five. It was largely Knight, as well as senior Ernas Valauskas (who had a team-high 17 points), that kept the Blue Tornado ahead.
Leading 34-28 several minutes into the third, McCallie began to pull away. Threes from Knight and junior Ryan Wingard helped propel the Blue Tornado to a 19-9 run that carried into the fourth quarter, with McCallie up 53-37 with 5 minutes to play.
While Boyd did try to make a game out of it late, briefly pulling back within single digits with just under 2 minutes left, it wouldn’t be enough, with several late McCallie free throws keeping it out of reach.
“This was a great test for us,” White said. “All these teams that we’re about to see (in region play) are very well coached and play very well together and know their roles, similar to the guys we saw tonight.”
Valauskas and Wingard were also named to the All-Tournament team.
The Blue Tornado travel to Knoxville Catholic this Friday, January 9, for the DII-AA East Region opener, with tip off scheduled for 7:30pm ET.
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