Twin rivers captures Oran championship

ORAN -- A packed house viewed the final round of the 49th Oran Invitational capped by Twin Rivers 71-67 victory over Scott City in the tournament final on Friday night.

"Our goal coming in was to win it," said Twin Rivers coach Jim Vaughan, "and we thought we had an opportunity. This is probably a more quality tournament this year than its been the past few years. No. 1 (seed) through No. 6 are real competitive."

That certainly proved to be the case, as upsets dotted the tournament schedule.

Twin Rivers, capturing its fifth Oran Invitational championship in six years, came in as the No. 2 seed, while Scott City, the defending champion, was No. 1.

In the third-place game, No. 6 East Prairie knocked off No. 4 Kelly and, in the consolation bracket final, No. 5 Scott Central ran past No. 3 Bell City.

Twin Rivers led Scott City from the opening tip in the wire-to-wire win.

"The major difference in this ballgame was our defense in the first and second quarters," said Scott City coach Lance Amick. "We allowed 10 offensive rebounds and they scored off five of them. When you lose by four, that's the ballgame right there."

Scott City, trailing by as many as 12 points in the second period, cut into the Twin Rivers' lead to narrow the gap to 30-25 at the half.

After the intermission, Scott City made run after run at Twin Rivers, but couldn't slice the lead. With about a minute to go in the third period, following a pair of free throws from Mark Johnston, a Johnston steal and layin and a Mark Dannenmueller back-door layin the Rams pulled to within one at 51-50. But consecutive baskets by Ryan Adams and Kade McBroom gave the Royals a little breathing room at 55-50 as the fast-paced quarter expired.

"They hit some big shots in the third quarter when we made a few little runs at them," said Amick.

Scott City (2-1), however, kept coming, closing to 55-54, then 58-57, 66-64 and finally 70-67 on Dannenmueller's 3-pointer with about nine seconds left.

"We're dealing with some tough kids here," said Amick, of his team. "They don't have any quit in them and we had a great crowd here rooting us on."

But it wasn't enough as Twin Rivers rebuffed each threat with a key play, clutch basket or free throw down the stretch.

Twin Rivers (3-0), hit 7-of-8 from the charity stripe in the closing minutes and 13-of-14 for the night.

"Talk about a turnaround," said Vaughan. "We were a 62 percent free-throw shooting team last year and we're at 81 percent going into tonight. That is huge. We handled some things late tonight that we haven't done in practice or games. We took the right shots at the right time, made them defend and extended our offensive possessions a little longer when we had to."

Michael Lance paced the Royals with 20 points. Adams and McBroom had 16 and 15, respectively, while Jared Stockton added 11.

Dannenmueller topped the Rams with 30 points, including three treys, and Mark Johnston netted 21. Dannenmueller (7-7) and Johnston (8-10) also led Scott City to a solid 18-of-21 performance from the free-throw line.

Surprising East Prairie (2-1) continued its inspired play with a victory for third place.

"I'm proud of our kids," said East Prairie coach Jason Irby. "They stepped up in this tournament and did a lot of good things. They showed some people that we've got a pretty decent team at East Prairie. The challenge will be for us to keep it up."

The Eagles managed a 29-23 halftime lead after a 13-13 first-quarter stalemate. They opened a 41-32 lead as the third quarter ended, then upped it to 12 points early in the fourth.

Then Kelly (1-2) made its move, trimming the lead to six. "We got kind of sloppy there in the fourth quarter and it looked like we were going to give it back to them," said Irby, "but part of that credit goes to them (Kelly). They picked it up."

Said Kelly coach Cory Johnson, "With about four and a half minutes left, we called a timeout and finally stepped it up a little bit, defensively. I don't know where that went the first three and a half quarters, but you've got to give East Prairie all the credit. They outplayed us all night long. They outhustled us getting to loose balls, they got the rebounds they needed and they hit all the big shots."

Jordan Sanders led East Prairie with 18 points. Teammates Ben Walters and Preston Shoemaker chipped in with 15 and 10, respectively.

Kent Deason paced the Hawks with 19. Kendal Deason and Jordan Felter added 10 apiece.

Scott County (2-1) blasted Bell City (1-2) in an up-tempo battle to determine fifth place.

"We got the ball out and ran," said Scott County coach Melvin Porter. "We did the things that we've been doing in practice, but this was the first time we brought it to the gym at game time."

Sophomore Isaac Porter led the Braves with 34 points, including 10-of-11 free throws. Three other Scott County players, Andrew Pullen (12), Ray Rodgers (12) and Josh Boley (11), scored in double figures.

The Braves hit 15-of-19 free throws in the fourth quarter to keep Bell City at bay.

Jeff Liggins led the Cubs with 28 points. D. D. Gillespie added 13.

First team: Michael Lance, Twin Rivers; Mark Dannenmueller, Scott City; Preston Shoemaker, East Prairie; Jared Stockton, Twin Rivers; and Mark Johnston, Scott City.

Second team: Jeremy Johnson, Scott County Central; A. J. Henry, Bell City; Ben Walters, East Prairie; Kent Deason, Kelly; and Avis White, Scott County Central.

Sportsmanship Award: East Prairie Eagles

Cheerleading Spirit Award: Kelly Hawks