Devante Parker treated Chris Renner with a trip to South Beach. Meanwhile, Renner’s now head coach-less team, the red-hot Ballard High School boys basketball team, treated acting coach Ray Klein to a championship.
Behind a double-double from tournament MVP Vonnie Patterson, the Bruins rolled to a 78-48 win over the Calloway County Lakers on Thursday night in the final of the eight-team Wes Unseld Classic at Seneca High School.
Renner, one of the longest-tenured coaches in the metro area, told his team after Wednesday’s semifinal win that he wouldn’t be with them Thursday because Parker, who was an All-Stater in his prep days at Ballard, got him tickets for Sunday’s NFL game in Miami.
So Klein and Patterson, who had 19 points by halftime thanks to a trio of 3-pointers in the second quarter, took control.
“They’ve got a lot of faith in me, so I was just taking good shots,” Patterson said of his teammates looking for him. “I wasn’t trying to force it a whole lot, so I was just trying to get my best shot.”
Patterson had 15 points in the quarterfinals and 16 in the semifinals before finishing with 23 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals in the title game.
“He’s just been phenomenal,” Klein said of Patterson. “His strength is he can play at all three levels, but he’s even scoring inside for us. Vonnie’s just playing great, he really is.”
Although the Bruins (8-2) put up another great point total — they’ve scored at least 76 points in each of their last five games — they didn’t get off to a great start. Ballard missed six of its first seven shots from the field, but relied on its speed, athleticism and aggression to keep the Lakers (9-4) at bay.
When Ballard couldn’t make a basket, Calloway County couldn’t find it. The Lakers, who entered the night tied with Graves County for the First Region lead in wins, turned it over eight times in its first 10 trips down the floor as Ballard built a 9-3 lead before heating up.
“We score a lot off our defense and that’s where we get most of our points from is our defense. Our defense turns into transition buckets and that’s how we like to play is fast,” Patterson said.
Calloway County almost went into the second quarter within striking distance, but Ballard reserve freshman guard Larelle Coleman hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Bruins a 17-10 lead.
Back-to-back baskets by senior guard Kamden Price cut the Bruins’ lead to 20-17 early in the second quarter. Ballard called timeout and turned up the heat as Klein told his team to get back to playing the way it was accustomed to under Renner.
“That’s the way we play. We’re pretty quick and that’s our advantage over people,” said Klein, the longtime assistant who is 2-0 the past two seasons and 3-0 in the last six years when he’s had to take over as acting coach. “We’re not big at all and our tallest kid is Vonnie at about 6-3, so we just try to get after people, pressure and use our quickness.”
Klein said it was important to get the smaller Lakers tired out and not let Calloway County dictate the pace. The Lakers ground out a 47-43 win Wednesday in the semifinals against Seneca and had held seven opponents to less than 50 points before facing the Bruins.
“We tried to get to their legs and then in the third quarter is where it started to pay some dividends. That’s where it really paid off,” Klein said. “That’s what the first half was. We tried to hound them.”
BALLARD 78, CALLOWAY COUNTY 48
Ballard 17 24 24 13–78
Calloway 10 17 12 9–48
BALLARD (8-2)
Tyrese Duncan 6p, 2r, 2a; Kereion Douglas 10p, 3r, 1 a, 1 s; Marshon Ford 5p, 1r, 1a, 3s; Tyron Duncan 2p, 3r, 4a; Dorion Tisby 3p, 3r, 1s; Antoine Darby 13p, 2r, 3a, 6s; Delonta Wimberly 6p, 4r, 3a; Vonnie Patterson 23p, 11r, 4a, 4s; Tony Kose 3p; Larelle Coleman 7p, 1r, 1s; Jackson Molsberger 1a; Alex Holley 1r.
CALLOWAY COUNTY (9-4)
Kamden Price 21p, Jeremy Darnell 8p, Payton Johnson 8p, Garrett Scott 4p, Logan Eastwood 3p; Christian Adams 2p, Jonah Brannon 2p.
Ballard’s Vonnie Patterson, #5, lines up a shot against Central’s Davon Thompson, #15, during their game at Central High School. Feb. 9, 2016