Oran girls basketball team topples Scott County Central, moves on to Delta title game

DELTA, Mo. -- The Oran girls basketball team was reeling heading into the final quarter of Tuesday's championship semifinal at the Delta New Year's Tournament, so coach Ethan Evans challenged his defense to rise to the occasion.

The second-seeded Eagles watched their lead dwindle to 11 points at the end of the third quarter, but they turned up their defense during the final eight minutes of play and held on to advance to the championship with a 70-49 victory over third-seeded Scott County Central.

"I just simply told them we've got to get after it on the press and try to create some turnovers and get some easy baskets in transition because our offense was just stagnant all night," Evans said about the message to his team at the end of the third quarter, during which the Eagles were outscored 15-8. "We were forcing stuff. We didn't want to run things all the way through, and you see what the result was there in that third quarter."

Freshman Leah Cauble scored a game-high 28 points to lead Oran, which improved to a perfect 9-0 on the season. Cauble scored 12 points in the opening period, including back-to-back fastbreak layups midway through the quarter. The Eagles led 28-11 after eight minutes of play.

"Anytime somebody comes out and presses us, we want to push the ball down the floor and hopefully shoot an easy layup. That's what we did for the majority of that first quarter," Evans said. "It opened a few things up from the outside, and we were able to knock down a couple jumpers. When you can get out in transition like that, it opens up a lot of lanes for you to score."

Sophomore Johneisha Daniel scored eight of her team-high 22 points in the second quarter, and SCC (7-4) prevented the Eagles from running away heading into halftime. Oran carried a 44-26 lead into the break

Oran's Ashlynn McIntosh grabs a rebound between Scott County Central's LaTeisha Strickland, left, and LaQuisha Strickland during the second quarter of a semifinal game in the Delta New Year's Tournament Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016 in Delta, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

Freshman Jessie Long scored under the basket to give the Eagles their largest lead of the game, 50-28, with 6:50 remaining in the third quarter, but the Bravettes countered with a 13-2 spurt that trimmed their deficit to 11 points heading into the fourth quarter. The run was capped by a fastbreak layup from SCC's Trinity Thomas with 20 seconds remaining in the period.

"I was proud of the girls," Bravettes coach Matt Limbaugh said. "We talked at halftime down 18 about not giving up and putting up a fight. We came in knowing that Oran's a very good team. The undefeated record shows it. ... We played team ball in the third quarter and moved the ball around. We just told them to kind of chip away each time and work on defense, go possession by possession.

"There's no such thing as a 20-point shot, so you've got to keep fighting each defensive possession and get stops, and then try to turn that into offensive points. In the third quarter, we really came out and played well."

Senior Tatum May scored six of her 10 points during a 10-4 run for Oran 4:52 into the final period. Evans was pleased with May's contribution and also credited the performance of senior Ashlyn McIntosh, who finished with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds.

"Tatum had some huge baskets coming down the stretch for us. She really stepped it up and got a couple good shots in the post and hit a nice jumper outside for us," Evans said. "Her and Ashlyn have been with this program since Day 1 with me as freshmen. I just thought Ashlyn did a heck of a job rebounding and blocking out, getting on the floor and doing those little things that help you win ball games."

Long added 16 points and five boards for the Eagles and was 6 of 7 from the free-throw line. Oran shot 17 of 23 (74 percent) at the charity stripe.

Oran's Tatum May tries to shoot against Scott County Central's Hailey Kesler during the first quarter of a semifinal game in the Delta New Year's Tournament Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016 in Delta, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"We were able to get out and put a little more pressure on them. We were able to get some good looks and dump it inside and went to the free-throw line," Evans said about his team's adjustments in the fourth quarter. "For the most part, we knocked down our free throws. We caused them to come out there and foul there at the end. ... We were able to kind of extend our lead at the line."

Limbaugh liked the effort from his players in the second half but saw his team revert back to careless turnovers in the final period, during which SCC had its lowest scoring output with only eight points.

"We had quite a few mental errors today," Limbaugh said. "I know Oran's a young team, and we're a young team as well. You're going to see that occasionally, but it was good for us. Anytime you play a team like Oran, it's great competition. You want to be able to go out and play the best and see how your team competes. I hope we learn from this, and I know we have a lot of work to do."

The Bravettes will take on fourth-seeded Woodland in the third-place game at 6 p.m. Thursday, while the Eagles will face top-seeded Saxony Lutheran in the championship game at 7:30 p.m.

Oran and Saxony squared off twice last season, including once in the semifinals of the Delta New Year's Tournament. The Eagles lost both games by a combined score of 122-50, and Evans said his players are looking forward to the challenge of facing an experienced Crusaders squad.

"I've played Saxony since their five girls came in as freshmen," Evans said. "We took a butt-whooping and a couple more butt-whoopings from them through the years here. They're a tough program. They guard extremely well. They move the ball extremely well. Coach [Sam] Sides does a phenomenal job.

"We're just kind of looking for the challenge and trying to use it as a measuring stick of where we're at, where we're going to be at in the long run here for this season."

SCC 11 15 15 8 -- 49

Oran 28 16 8 18 -- 70

SCOTT COUNTY CENTRAL (49) -- Johneisha Daniel 22, Hailey Kesler 9, Maddison Avance 6, Trinity Thomas 5, LaQuisha Strickland 5, LaTeisha Strickland 2. FG 21, FT 5-8, F 17. (3-pointers: Kesler 2. Fouled out: None.)

ORAN (70) -- Leah Cauble 28, Jessie Long 16, Tatum May 10, Ashlyn McIntosh 9, Brianna Stause 7. FG 26, FT 17-23, F 10. (3-pointers: Stause 1. Fouled out: None.)