Devin Best, Chaffee edge Scott County Central 69-64 in season opener

ORAN — Few outside of the Chaffee boys’ basketball program expected Devin Best to be this good this early in the season. But the 6-foot-5 senior, who was primarily a reserve last year, quickly emerged not just as one of the Red Devils’ best players, but as arguably their most lethal scoring threat. That was on full display in the opening round of the 69th Annual Oran Invitational Tournament against Scott County Central Monday night.

Best dropped a career-high 16 points as No. 2 seed Chaffee scraped by the No. 7 seed Braves 69-64 at Oran High School.

“There’s not a kid in Chaffee that spends more time shooting than he does,” head coach Josh Govreau said. “Most people see him and think he’s just a big kid and can’t shoot. But he has shown in the past that he’s very capable of hitting that outside shot, including tonight.”

Best, who shot 3-of-5 from 3-point range, and promising point guard Nolan Fowler anchored a Chaffee team that fed off a huge first half to come out victorious in its thrilling season opener.

“I think we came out in the first half pretty strong,” Best said. “We kind of let up in the second half, which costed us at times. I really don't think that it should have been as close as it was, but we just eased up and got back in place.”

The flashiest Best highlight from his season debut came late in the first half when he found a rhythm firing away from long range. He wasted no time with the ball in his hands and smoothly flicked back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 26-12 before the half; unsurprisingly, that was the loudest Chaffee’s crowd got all night.

“So me with shooting,” Best said, “I really just used it as a way to get fitter. I just shot a lot over the summer, every day just hundreds of shots. Sometimes I hit a thousand shots a day. Just a lot of shots up. I try to get my friends and teammates to do the same.”

Chaffee led by nine points at the half, but maintained a double-figure lead throughout most of the frame.

SCC missed six of its first nine shots as the Red Devils crafted a 16-5 lead in the first quarter behind 3-pointers from senior Kamden Little and sophomore Dane McMullin. Braves junior Cameron Bean drained a pair of 3s as the Braves trimmed the lead to 40-31 before the break.

That’s until SCC came out playing like an entirely new team in the second half.

The Braves used a massive third quarter to mount a 10-point comeback that began when point guard Cortavian Banks hit a slam dunk on a fast break midway through the frame to cut the deficit to 48-41.

That play ignited a 15-0 run — 10 points of which belong to Banks — that handed SCC an improbable 51-48 lead. Fowler’s layup quenched the Chaffee scoring drought and knotted the game at 51-51.

“I thought we came out and played really hard at the beginning,” Govreau said. “Kind of threw a haymaker at them and then later around they threw some at us and made it interesting heading into the last quarter. It was a great ball game.”

SCC stormed on a 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter before Chaffee got out of a funk and made a final surge. Sophomore Rolen Reischman’s jumper with 1:30 left put the Red Devils ahead 64-62 before Little iced the game with a trio of free throws in the closing seconds.

Best also proved to be a factor off the glass and logged nine rebounds on the night, including four in the final quarter.

“The biggest thing for him, which I think he did tonight, is we've got to make sure we get him to defend and rebound,” Govreau said of Best. “Not only can he shoot outside, but we need his presence inside as well. And I thought he did that double stretch. He got some big rebounds for us and protected the basket a little bit, which were some things that he struggled with in the past. So, he had a great offensive game, but, in the end, he made some big defensive rebounding plays. That is good for him too.”

Outside of Best, Fowler turned in a team-high 20 points, while McMullin hit double digits with 13 and Reischman chipped in eight.

Banks had a red-hot night for the Braves behind 27 points and eight assists. Trevor Brown, Courtney Sanders III and Memphis Musgrove each finished with double digits, as well.

“I told our team that last year we lost 10 games that were exactly like that,” Govreau said. “And we finished with a 9-16 record. So, the big positive out of that is, hopefully we're finding a way now to make the plays down the stretch to win those games, whereas last year we could never do that. It's good seeing them grow up there.”

Chaffee will return to the court on Thursday for a semifinal matchup against the winner of Bell City and Oran at 8 p.m. Scott County Central will look to bounce back against the loser of Bell City and Oran tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in the first round of consolations.