Leopold game-winner sinks Chaffee

sports@standard-democrat.com

CHAFFEE -- What looked to be improbable comeback win turned into a somber walk off the court Tuesday night for the Chaffee Red Devils against visiting Leopold.

Just seconds after watching Jimmy Golden hit a potential game-winner to cap a late 14-point comeback, the Red Devils saw Wildcat senior Cameron Davis rim in a fade-away jumper right before the buzzer to steal a 65-64 win.

Chaffee's Trevor Morehead attempts a shot against Leopold Tuesday at Chaffee High School (Brent Shipman photo)

"There's nothing I can go in there and say that's going to make them feel at ease," Chaffee head coach Josh Govreau said of his team. "I told the boys we've had a couple of close games here of late that we've come on the short end. Maybe it's going to pay off with that big one at the end that we're waiting for. I told them to keep their heads up.

"We could have given up, getting down 14 points at one time, but we kept battling back. Hopefully we'll get rewarded in the long run."

With only five minutes to play in the fourth quarter the Red Devils looked all but out of it, trailing 59-45 after an 8-4 Leopold run to start the period. In a span of just over two minutes, however, the Red Devils unleashed a barrage of five 3-pointers that fueled a 15-0 run to push them ahead, 60-59, with 1:41 to play.

Senior Charlie Montgomery started the streak with the first of three 3-pointers after having only scored six heading into the fourth. Layton Tenkhoff and Storm Estes did the rest of the damage, connecting once each from the behind the arc during the rally.

"I went with the big lineup," Wildcat head coach Andy Beck said of his team's trouble guarding the three. "Offensively it gives us an advantage and defensively it opens up the threes and they were on. That's something we took the risk of. If they're going to hit them, they're going to hit them.

"We had to change it up. When it got to a one, two point game I had to take one of the bigs out and it makes for a difference offense every time so we have to adjust. We finally buckled down there in the last minute and i don't think we gave up a three there, but that's what hurt us."

The squad swapped leads with a basket each over the next minute before Zach Beel sunk a pair of free throws to put Leopold back on top, 63-32, with 36 seconds remaining.

Chaffee came down the court before being forced to inbound on their own baseline. Tenkhoff took the ball on the inbound and set up shot outside the paint before swinging the ball inside to the team's big man, Trevor Morehead.

Morehead sent a shot up that rimmed out and into the hands of teammate Jimmy Golden. Golden's put-back found its mark to leave Chaffee with a 64-63 lead with 16.7 seconds to play.

A series of defensive stops by the Red Devils as Leopold worked the ball down the court eventually had the Wildcats inbounding from their own baseline with seconds to play.

After a quick timeout the Wildcats put the ball in the hands of Davis off the inbound.

Davis took the ball up the court before driving the lane and putting up a contested jumper. His shot found the front of the rim, where it hung before rolling in for the game winner.

We wanted to get Davis a catch in the corner with a ball screen. We had some other options off of it if they doubles, which I figured they would. But Cameron is a player. He had a great screen from Parker Brown coming off the bench and that was the play of the game, that screen coming off the bench. That opened up him getting right to the middle. He's been getting to middle all night every time we'd ball screen so I took the gamble to see if they'd try it. they didn't double so we got a pretty good shot.

"We wanted to get Davis a catch in the corner with a ball screen," Beck said. "We had some other options off of it if they double (teamed), which I figured they would. But Cameron is a player. He had a great screen from Parker Brown coming off the bench that was the play of the game.

"That screen opened up him getting right to the middle. He's been getting to middle all night every time we'd ball screen so I took the gamble to see if they'd try it. They didn't double so we got a pretty good shot."

Though the Wildcats celebrated as it looked like time expired during Davis' shot, one second was put back on the clock, giving Chaffee a last shot at a Hail Mary. A half-court inbound pass down the right side of the court was broken up by Leopold, sealing the win.

On the game-winning shot, Govreau expected a screen, but credits the Wildcats for their execution.

"We figured they'd be doing some kind of ball screen," Govreau said. "We didn't know if it'd be (Davis) or, on the play before they ran it with (Austin Bucher) off with Zach Beel, so we were talking about the ball screen and how we were going to defend that.

"We thought about fouling, but being up one the things that go through your mind. We went withy our instinct, we're going to make him hit a shot and I thought Layton did a good job on him, but he hit a fade away jumper. Just a good shot by him."

Leading Chaffee's effort was Montgomery with a game-high 19 points that included 13 points in the final quarter and four of the team's 10 3-pointers in the contest. Morehead had 15 points and Tenkhoff 13.

Estes was the fourth Red Devils in double-digits, scoring all 12 of his points on four 3-pointers.

For Leopold, Dillan Vandeven had 18 points with Beel and Davis scoring 13 and 11 points respectively. Bucher finished with 10 points.

Neither team had a good night at the line with Chaffee shooting 10 of 23 (43.4 percent) from the charity stripe compared to the Wildcats' 8 for 22 (36.3 percent) effort.

"They missed 14 and we missed 13," Govreau said. "It was an ugly night for both teams from the line. I usually say free throws aren't going to win all the games, but they win the close ones. We can look back at not just free throws, but there's other things we can nitpick that would have made it a different outcome.

"We're going to hopefully keep our heads up and come back Friday when we play a good Scott Central team so we can't worry a bout this one too much."

Leopold 13 18 18 16 -- 65

Chaffee 14 13 12 25 -- 64

LEOPOLD (65) -- Parker Brown 3, Austin Bucher 10, Dillan Vandeven 18, Andrew McWilliams 2, Cameron Davis 11, Zach Beel 13, Wesley Stoverink 8. FG 27, FT 8-22, F 17. (3-pointers: Brown 1, Bucher 2. Fouled out: none.)

CHAFFEE (64) -- Layton Tenkhoff 13, Jordan Wilburn 3, Storm Estes 12, Jimmy Golden 2, Charlie Montgomery 19, Trevor Morehead 15. FG 22, FT 10-23, F 16. (3-pointers: Tenkhoff 1, Wilburn 1, Estes 4, Montgomery 4. Fouled out: none.)