Oran starts fast, ends up in Chaffee Invitational title game

Oran's Allie Cummins and Kelly's Stephanie Worth (21) fight for a rebound during Thursday's semifinal contest at the Lady Devil Invitational Tournament at Chaffee High School. (Brent Shipman photo)

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CHAFFEE -- Thanks in part to a dominant start on Thursday, the Oran Lady Eagles will get a chance to capture the first Lady Devils Invitational Tournament championship in school history.

Playing the Kelly Lady Hawks in the semifinals, Oran jumped out to a 14-point lead to end the first quarter before pulling away for a 63-36 win that matches them against Woodland in the title game.

"We preach getting off to a good start and finishing well," Lady Eagles' head coach Ethan Evans said. "Now if we can only get that middle half worked out we'll be alright. We got off to that good start, had a bad second quarter, but overall I was proud of the way we played."

Oran held Kelly scoreless the first three minutes of the contest while scoring the first eight points of the game. They'd jump ahead 18-4 to start the second quarter before pulling away by as many as 16 points in the half.

The Lady Hawks rebounded with a strong final five minutes of the half to enter the locker room only trailing by 10 points, at 32-22.

A 14-4 run to start the second half gave Oran its biggest lead to that point, 46-28, but the Lady Hawks once again made a game of it by scoring six straight points in the final minute of the quarter.

After entering the fourth within 12 points Kelly saw its luck run out as the Lady Eagles held them to only one basket in the final eight minutes of play. Up 53-36 midway through the period, Oran went on to score 10 straight to close out the win.

"It's just defense and getting the ball in hands of free throw shooters," Evans said of the strong finish. "Chrissy Sauceda is our main free throw shooter and we want to make sure she has the ball at the end of the game so she can put those in the hole for us."

Making it 42 points in the last two games Addie Kielhofner led the Lady Eagles with a game-high 21 points. Taylor Nenninger was second on the squad with 14 points while Allie Cummins added 13 points to Oran's cause.

For Kelly, Tessa Johnson had a team-high nine points with Morgan LeDure and Kaylee Scherer scoring six points each.

"Oran Played well tonight," Lady Hawks' head coach Rod McQuerter said. "They have excellent guard play and it's hard to beat a team when they have excellent guards that are seniors. That's the key to success right there."

Kelly will now play East Prairie on Saturday in the tournament's third-place game at 3 p.m.

With the win Oran moves on to face the Lady Cardinals in the championship game Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Neither team has ever won the tournament's title with Woodland falling 53-43 in last year's championship to host Chaffee.

For Evans the matchup will have some familiar ties.

"I coached over there for five years," Evans said of Woodland. "I coached the junior high boys and assisted with (current Lady Cardinals head coach) Robert Stein for a year when he was coaching the boys. I know coach Stein pretty well and we're good friends.

"They're well coached and have some great players. Josie Long is an unbelievable athlete and it's going to be a tough game."

ORAN (63) -- Aubrianna Jones 2, Addie Kielhofner 21, Ashlyn McIntosh 6, Taylor Nenninger 14, Allie Cummins 13, Tatum May 2, Chrissy Sauceda 5. FG 21, FT 19-31, F 20. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)

KELLY (36) -- Samantha Ratledge 4, Morgan LeDure 6, Kaylee Scherer 6, Tessa Johnson 9, Kristi Brucker 4, Payton Jones 2, Logan Ivie 5. FG 9, FT 14-27, F 23. (3-pointers: Johnson 1. Fouled out: none.)

Woodland 40, East Prairie 29

The East Prairie Lady Eagles fell to top-seeded Woodland Thursday during the semifinals of the Chaffee Lady Devils Invitational Tournament 40-29.

The Lady Eagles, the fourth seed who will play for third place against Kelly on Saturday at 3 p.m., were led by Kaitlyn Shands' 15 points.

The host team Chaffee will play for the consolation championship Saturday at 1:30 p.m. after taking down Scott City 44-15.

Julia Sutterfield paced Chaffee with 15 points.

EAST PRAIRIE (29) -- Rebekah Douglas 6, Caitlyn Harwell 6, Kaitlyn Shands 15, Kali Thurmon 2. FG 13, FT 2-5, F 12. (3-pointers: Shands 1. Fouled out: none.)

WOODLAND (40) -- Whitney Lincoln 8, Josie Long 18, Taylor Toombs 3, Rachel Poole 6, Shelby Sawyer 2, Lindsey Craft 3. FG 16, FT 5-12, F 12. (3-pointers: Toombs 1, Poole 1, Craft 1. Fouled out: none.)