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OIT Semifinals: Scott Central pulls off mild upset over Red Devils
ORAN -- With the threat of inclement weather in the coming days the Oran Invitational Tournament saw it's semifinal round pushed up a day in hopes of beating the snow.
Starting the night off the Scott County Central Braves booked their seventh straight trip to the title game with a 93-86 win over Chaffee.
"I think we had two or three starters that had two fouls early on," Scott Central head coach Frank Staple said. "The guys that came in did a good job. I thought Tyreek Williams did a great job today filling in for us.
"Basically it's just a tough team, a tough game and we're fortunate to pull that one out."
As Staple alluded to, early foul trouble led to some mismatches late in the first half. After holding tight with the Red Devils, 38-38, with only two minutes before the break, the Braves, the tournament's third seed, surrendered seven unanswered points to enter the half trailing 45-38.
Led by Jeffery Porter's 10 points in the third quarter, Scott Central came out of the brake on a 15-3 run to retake the lead. The Braves went on to extend their advantage to as many as 10 points in the quarter before a late Chaffee rally cut it back to five, 69-64, entering the fourth.
Despite the late rally, the Red Devils, who were seeded second, were outscored 31-19 in the first eight minutes of the half.
"The second half we got wore down a little bit," Red Devils' head coach Josh Govreau said. "I maybe should have subbed a little bit more to try and keep our bodies fresh. A lot of that is conditioning and as the year goes on we're going to get that.
"Those football players are still a week behind on conditioning and it showed."
With four minutes to play Chaffee pulled within a bucket, at 77-75, before a couple of empty possessions allowed Scott Central to go on a 7-0 run.
Back-to-back baskets from Layton Tenkhoff kept the Red Devils in striking distance and troubles at the free throw line by the Braves had Chaffee only four back, 90-86, with 30 seconds to play.
During a stretch in the final 1:40, Scott Central hit only 1 of 6 free throws, giving the Red Devils a chance to close within one. Unfortunately for Chaffee a missed shot with 20 seconds left and a Braves' rebound sent Porter to the line, where he hit 1 of 2 to pull back out by five.
One final three attempt by the Red Devils was rebounded by Scott Central with eight seconds left and Porter closed out the game sinking another two free throws.
For the Braves' second half resurgence, Porter deserves more than a share of the credit. The sophomore scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the final two quarters.
"The thing with Jeffery is we have to get him to be aggressive," Staple said. "We want the ball in his hands and we feel like he can do good things with it. We told him 'we need you to make some plays' and he did."
Behind Porter, Juwan Owens finished with 19 points while Trevian Moore added 17 points including hitting five of the team's 11 3-pointers on the night.
Kendall Blissett was the fourth Brave in double digits with 16 points.
For Chaffee, Peyton Montgomery and Charlie Montgomery had 24 points each with Trevor Morehead pitching in 18 points.
Though his team may have wore down late in contest, Govreau was pleased with how his team responded against a tough Braves team. That included forcing Scott Central into foul trouble and outscoring the Braves 24-13 in the second quarter to take an eight point lead into the break.
"I thought our effort was tremendous on both ends of the floor," Govreau said. "We went in to halftime giving up 38 points and I thought defensively we played well, Scott Central just hit shots. There was two possessions where we didn't know where somebody was guarding and they got wide open threes and hit those.
"But the others they were contested, they just knocked them down so give them credit."
| SCC | 25 | 13 | 31 | 24 | -- | 93 |
| Chaffee | 21 | 24 | 19 | 22 | -- | 86 |
SCOTT CENTRAL (93) -- Juwan Owens 19, Trevion Moore 17, Jeffery Porter 31, Kendall Blissett 16, Javonta Daniel 4, Matthew Blissett 7. FG 34, FT 15-27, F 25. (3-pointers: Owens 3, Moore 5, Porter 3. Fouled out: none.)
CHAFFEE (86) -- Layton Tenkhoff 16, Peyton Montgomery 24, Storm Estes 8, Jimmy Golden 2, Tyler Golden 2, Charlie Montgomery 19, Trevor Morehead 18. FG 33, FT 18-34, F 18. (3-pointers: Peyton Montgomery 1, Estes 1. Fouled out: Estes.)
Oran 80, Advance 53
ORAN -- After a two-year absence, the Oran Eagles have booked a ticket back to the title game in their namesake Oran Invitational Tournament.
Jumping out to an early 10-point lead against Advance on Wednesday, the top-seeded Eagles led the Hornets by double-digits most of the way as they cruised to an 80-53 semifinal win.
"I thought we played a little bit sloppy and Advance had a lot to do with that," Oran head coach Joe Shoemaker said. "They pressure you and attack the rim well. They're a well-coached team so we're just going to have to continue to improve on that aspect this year."
In the first four minutes of the contest the Eagles held Advance to only one basket on a dominant 12-2 run to start the game. The Hornets scored a quick bucket to break up Oran's run but still trailed 18-9 to start the second quarter.
Seth Ressel and Hunter Schlosser combined for 11 points in the second quarter as the Eagles outscored Advance 16-10 to take a 15-point advantage into the break.
Though Advance came out of the break with their biggest offensive quarter of the night, so did the Eagles. Ressel and Chance Tenkhoff combined for 19 points as Oran outscored the Hornets for the third straight quarter, 26-19.
Oran took a 22-point lead into the fourth and extended it as high as 30 in the final minutes to ensure trip to this year's championship game.
"We have to learn to consistently play defense. and quit slapping and fouling," Shoemaker said. "We scored the ball decent at times tonight, but if we can't commit to playing defense with our feet and our bodies we're going to struggle this year."
Ressel led the Eagles' effort with a game-high 27 points, including 16 in the second half. Schlosser added 22 points while Tenkhoff and Jacob Priggel scored 15 and 10 points respectively.
For Advance, Dalton Wilson had 17 points and Austin Wilson contributed 14 points, including three of his team's four 3-pointers.
With the win Oran sets up a rematch of the 2010 title game when Scott Central routed the Eagles 84-32. They'll have a chance to end the Braves' five-year title run when they face off for the championship tonight at 8 p.m. at Oran High School.
"It will be a long night for us if we don't learn to play defense with our feet and rebound a little bit better," Shoemaker said.
| Oran | 18 | 16 | 26 | 20 | -- | 80 |
| Advance | 9 | 10 | 19 | 15 | -- | 53 |
ORAN (80) -- Jacob Priggel 10, Chance Tenkhoff 15, Seth Ressel 27, Garrison Mangels 2, Hunter Schlosser 22, Anthony Pobst 4. FG 33, FT 10-19, F 12. (3-pointers: Priggel 1, Tenkhoff 2, Schlosser 1. Fouled out: none.)
ADVANCE (53) -- Austin Miller 14, Garrett Walker 2, Lane Below 5, Eli Seger 5, Richard Nixon 2, Dalton Wilson 17, Grant Woodfin 2, Alex Morse 6. FG 24, FT 7-11, F 18. (3-pointers: Miller 3, Below 1. Fouled out: Miller.)