February 26, 2014
Below, Advance end Chaffee's season 77-67
sports@standard-democrat.com CHAFFEE -- It's no secret. Everybody knows it. To beat Advance you have to stop Lane Below. The Chaffee Red Devils know this as well as anybody, having faced Advance three times in a span of 24 days earlier this season with Below averaging 29 points in those games...
By Derek James - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
CHAFFEE -- It's no secret.
Everybody knows it.
To beat Advance you have to stop Lane Below.
The Chaffee Red Devils know this as well as anybody, having faced Advance three times in a span of 24 days earlier this season with Below averaging 29 points in those games.
But on Tuesday night, Advance served notice that it is much more than a one-man show as the third-seeded Hornets defeated No. 2 seed Chaffee 77-67 in a Class 2, District 3 Tournament semifinal game in front of an overflow crowd at Chaffee High School.
Chaffee's season ends at 17-10 while, for the fourth straight year, Advance (19-9) will play top-seeded Oran for the district title tomorrow at 7:30.
Oran, which has defeated Advance in the last three district championship games, defeated fourth-seeded Ellington 95-63 in the other district semifinal matchup.
"It was definitely a big win tonight but it's not the game we want," Below said. "We want to win Thursday. We've been beat there the past three years in that game and I really want to come out on top."
Below finished with 23 points and six assists while hitting 13 of 18 from the free throw line.
But it was Below's teammates that stepped up throughout the night when the 6-foot senior guard had trouble finding scoring chances.
Some benefitted from Below's drives and dishes, but sometimes it was simply from the attention that he drew from the Red Devil defense that left Advance shooters wide open, most notably Austin Miller and Alex Morse, who combined to hit five 3-pointers, the bulk of them from the corners.
And if it wasn't the 3-point shooting, it was Below driving, drawing the defenders, and dishing off to 6-foot senior Eli Seger or 6-3 freshman Dawson Mayo for wide open layups.
"We wanted to limit what we could do with him," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said of Below. "We always wanted to make sure we find him and make some other players beat us, and I'll tell you what that Morse kid hit some big shots for them. Lane just did a good job of getting Seger and people easy buckets underneath."
The game started well for Chaffee as they controlled the boards and established dominance in the paint, mostly from 6-2, 265-pound junior center Trevor Morehead, who muscled in a basket with two minutes left in the first quarter to give the Red Devils a 15-9 lead.
A Morse basket cut the lead to 15-11 with 50 seconds left, and then later with the clock ticking down, Morehead was fouled on a half-court heave with 1.5 seconds remaining.
But Morehead missed all three free throws and then to make matters worse, Chaffee's Jimmy Golden committed his second foul on the ensuing rebound.
It proved to be a momentum shift, but also foreshadowed things to come for Chaffee from the charity stripe.
Advance took advantage and began heating up in the second quarter as it seized control of the game.
When Mayo scored on an offensive putback and was fouled with 2:42 left in the second quarter, it capped a 20-5 run in which the Hornets now led 29-20.
Three times Chaffee's Layton Tenkhoff cut the lead to six on a 3-pointer, a drive to the hoop and a pair of free throws, but each time Advance had answers.
None were more devastating than back-to-back 3-pointers by Morse and Zane Eggimann, the latter of which came with seven seconds left in the period to send the Hornets into halftime with a 39-27 lead.
When the buzzer had sounded, Advance had racked up 28 points in the quarter, while limiting Chaffee to 12.
"After the first quarter I was comfortable with the pace, but we gave up 28 points in the second and just battled from behind all night long," Govreau said. "We did what we wanted to besides that second quarter when we got into a running game with them. I knew we couldn't run with them and get in a game in the 70s and 80s -- we didn't stand a chance."
Chaffee had opportunities to make a dent in the Hornet lead in the third quarter, eventually cutting the score to 51-45 on a Storm Estes 3-pointer with 1:30 left in the period.
Moments later, Golden missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw with a minute to go and the Hornets took advantage with Seger scoring inside and Dalton Wilson hitting a fadeaway 15-footer at the buzzer to push the lead to 55-45.
Advance carried the momentum into the fourth where the lead swelled to 64-48 on a Below drive with 5:30 left in the game.
The Hornets still led 66-52 after a Wilson basket with four minutes to go when Chaffee made the decision to make Advance earn it at the line.
Below did most of the damage, hitting 10 of 13 in the fourth quarter to seal it.
"We decided with three minutes left we were going to start fouling and, you know, give ourselves some extra possessions," Govreau said. "Unfortunately we couldn't keep Below from getting the basketball and I had so many people in foul trouble."
Below, who is an 87 percent free throw shooter, demanded the ball each time Advance would take possession.
"I want that ball in those situations and I feel confident shooting at the free throw line," said Below, who has drawn interest from Three Rivers Community College and Culver-Stockton. "I wanted to get the ball and try to hit some free throws for our team."
The Red Devils had actually held Below to just nine points in the first three quarters, but the free throws boosted his final point total.
Chaffee got no closer than nine in the final two minutes.
And the Red Devils can point directly at free throw shooting as, perhaps, the biggest contributor to the loss as they connected on just 12 of 26 (46 percent).
"A lot of our close games this year (free throws have hurt us)," Govreau said. "It seemed like we always missed them at times too where maybe we could get it under single digits or get it to five and we'd miss them. You can't do that in close games."
Chaffee was led by Charlie Montgomery's 18 points. Morehead and Golden each scored 16 points.
Seger and Morse each scored 12 points for the Hornets. Miller had 10 and Mayo followed up with nine.
In its previous games against Advance, Chaffee won two of the three against the Hornets.
But those were with standout junior guard Peyton Montgomery in the lineup, who underwent shoulder surgery in January and missed the rest of the season.
The Red Devils, which started the season 9-4, never could quite overcome the loss of their leader as they finished 8-6 without Montgomery in the lineup.
"Coming into the year, and the last couple of years, we've been talking about district championship as our goal," Govreau said. "I'm not going to say anything to them that's going to all of a sudden make them feel great, but I told them I couldn't be more proud of them. A lot of teams losing their best player like that with two months left would have cashed it in and thrown their chips in. All four of my seniors and Morehead, I mean they all stepped up. The last two months I really enjoyed being able to coach. I really appreciated the character that they showed."
The Red Devils will graduate Charlie Montgomery, Tenkhoff, Estes and Golden this year.
Advance 11 28 16 22 -- 77
Chaffee 15 12 18 22 -- 67
ADVANCE (77) -- Lane Below 23, Eli Seger 12, Alex Morse 12, Austin Miller 10, Dawson Mayo 9, Dawson Wilson 8, Zane Eggimann 3. FG 24, FT 16-29, F 21. (3-pointers: Miller 3, Morse 2, Eggimann 1. Fouled out: Mayo).
CHAFFEE (67) -- Charlie Montgomery 18, Trevor Morehead 16, Jimmy Golden 16, Layton Tenkhoff 9, Storm Estes 8. FG 18, FT 12-26, F 24. (3-pointers: Estes 2, Golden 2, Montgomery 1. Fouled out: Tenkhoff, Jordan Wilburn).
__Oran 95, Ellington 63__
The top-seeded Oran Eagles defeated fourth-seeded Ellington 95-63 to advance to the district final.
Oran led 58-29 at halftime and extended the lead to 80-52 heading into the fourth quarter.
Oran (21-7) got a game-high 33 points from Seth Ressel. Jacob Priggel had 21 and Hunter Schlosser added 17.
Elllington was led by Dylan Pogue's 20 points and freshman Marshon Morrissey's 15 points.
Ellington 21 18 13 11 -- 63
Oran 31 27 22 15 -- 95
ELLINGTON (63) -- Shaun Chilton 8, Jordan Santuff 9, Wyatt Tarvid 4, Dylan Pogue 20, Hunter Hathcoat 7, Marshon Morrissey 15. FG 25, FT 7-11, F 18. (3-pointers: Chilton 2, Santuff 3, Pogue 1. Fouled out: none)
ORAN (95) -- Max Priggel 5, Thomas Trankler 13, Jacob Priggel 21, Seth Ressel 33, Garrison Mangels 2, Hunter Schlosser 17, Eric Westrich 4. FG 34, FT 12-19, F 17. (3-pointers: J. Priggel 3, Ressel 4, Schlosser 2. Fouled out: none)
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