By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Tennessee State opens its home slate Saturday when the Tigers welcome Reinhardt University to the Gentry Center on the Nashville campus. With wins over UC Davis, Northern Arizona, at Santa Clara, at Middle Tennessee State and now at Canisius, the Tigers are 5-0 for the first time in the school history’s at the Division I level.
Orchestrating this effort, redshirt senior Tahjere McCall leads the Tigers scoring 15.2 points and handing out 4.6 assists per game.
McCall’s impact was on display Wednesday when the 6-foot-5 guard poured in 12 of his 14 points during the first half as TSU erased an early deficit and took a 13-point lead into the locker room.
“He’s been awesome,” said third-year Tigers coach Dana Ford. “He’s really matured on and off the floor. He’s already graduated. He’s in grad school. He’s everything you ask. A coach’s dream.”
The preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference selection got TSU on the board with a pull-up 3-pointer from the top of the key. Trailing by as many as six, McCall led the way knocking down a pull-up jumper from the right wing. His steal and dunk knotted the game, and the Tigers went on to defeat Canisius, 72-58.
“He’s got a lot of game to him,” Canisius head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. “He’s got size. He’s got quickness. He’s assertive. He’s got very good vision.”
McCall gave TSU its largest lead of the night later in the first half when he hit a fall-away jumper along the baseline and connected on a catch-and-shoot trey next trip down the floor.
“He’s basically unguardable off the bounce if I were to run that type of system,” Ford noted. “He does a good job of trying to do what we want. He really got us off to a great start tonight.”
McCall handed out four of his game-high six assists in the second half. He also collected four steals. Last season, the Philadelphia native set a TSU single-season mark with 72 thefts. His 2.32 steals per game were good for ninth in the nation during the 2015-16 season. His current steal percentage of 5.6 is 22nd in the country per KenPom.
Friday night’s effort came while defending Kassius Robertson who McCall held more than five points under his season average of 12.5.
“He does turn the ball over,” Ford said referring to McCall’s four mishandles on the night. “But he steals it from the other team… As always, he did a phenomenal job on the other team’s best perimeter player holding him to seven points.”
On the season, he has hit 52.4 percent (22-42) from the floor including 44.4 percent (4-9) behind the three-point arc. He grabs 5.2 rebounds over 30.6 minutes.
“He’s poised, but he goes hard,” Witherspoon commented. “That’s what sticks out about this team. A lot of times you get a team that goes as hard as they have, they had 19 turnovers, but sometimes they’re out of control and that just isn’t the case (with them). When you go that hard and you’re talented and you’re unselfish, things work out for you. He exemplifies that. He’s a terrific player. We knew it coming in.”
A Daily News All-Public Team selection at Carver HS of Engineering and Science, McCall started his collegiate career at Niagara University where he made 37 starts over two seasons. He averaged 7.5 points during his sophomore season.
Tennessee State plays at Vanderbilt next Tuesday, November 29th. The Tigers also have meeting with North Carolina State (December 10th) and Duke (December 19th) before starting OVC play at Murray State on December 31st.
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