Video Interview - Exclusive One-on-One with Gate City's Mac McClung
Mac McClung lived up to all the hype and then some on Friday night in his final High School Basketball game with the Gate City Blue Devils.
Facing the defending State Champion Robert E. Lee Fighting Leemen, who defeated them in overtime during last year’s State Tournament quarterfinals, Gate City turned to their sensational 6-foot-2 senior guard to lead the charge in a chance for redemption.
McClung and the Blue Devils got it, scoring a whopping 47 points – a new VHSL State Championship record – on 15-of-21 shooting from the field and 16-for-19 at the foul line as they topped the Leemen 80-65 to capture the Class 2 crown before a packed to capacity crowd at the VCU Siegel Center in Richmond. He did in front of his future Head Coach, Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing, as he helped bring his current Head Coach Scott Vermillion of Gate City career win #400.
Prior to McClung's 47 points, the VHSL Championship game record was 43 points by Cave Spring grad J.J. Redick, who went on to play at Duke and is now in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers. Redick accomplished his feat in 2002 during a 70-62 victory over George Wythe of Richmond, when he also made eight three-pointers.
It was the third significant scoring record for McClung, who became the VHSL’s all-time leading scorer with 2801 points, breaking the mark of 2770 set by Floyd County guard Caleb Tanner (now of Radford University) in 2014. Earlier in the season, he shattered the VHSL single-season scoring record, previously 948 points scored by Bethel grad and former NBA MVP Allen Iverson in 1993. McClung closed out his senior campaign with 1153 points scored.
In addition, McClung had five assists in the title game and made skied to reject a shot by Lee 6-foot-8 center Jarvis Vaughan, an Old Dominion signee who had a big performance in defeat with 21 points and 19 rebounds. His teammate, junior D-1 prospect Zac Ervin, was sharp as well for Gate City with 26 points on 11-of-19 shooting to go with eight rebounds and three assists.
Following his memorable performance, we caught up with McClung for an exclusive One-on-One Interview you can watch at the link below . . .