Chaffee holds off Scott City for third in S-MC

By JOHN UNTERREINER ~ Southeast Missourian

MORLEY, Mo. -- The Chaffee Red Devils built a momentum-filled 13-point lead against Scott City in the third-place game of the Scott-Mississippi Conference boy basketball tournament Friday night.

The Red Devils (11-7) narrowly held on from there.

Chaffee saw the lead evaporate into a tie midway through the fourth quarter, but the tournament's fourth seed buckled down late to seal a thrilling 59-55 victory.

"We've been in that situation a couple of times, and we actually ended up losing the game," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. "We were able to at least win. What we have trouble doing with learning to play with the lead is still being aggressive but take what the defense gives you. We still think we have to do too much one-on-one stuff and just attack and take bad shots. Hopefully from this win maybe we can learn some things."

It appeared as though Chaffee was going to win handily.

The Red Devils clung to a 23-21 lead with just over six minutes remaining in the second quarter when the tide turned.

Scott City guard Jessie Sanders was called for a personal foul followed by a technical foul that saddled him on the bench for the remainder of the first half with three fouls.

It was no coincidence that Chaffee went on a 16-5 run to end the half with a 39-26 lead.

"He's a good player," Govreau said. "Once he gets going he gets confidence and he's hard to stop. I was a little bit disappointed in our intensity to start the game defensively. A lot of the stuff he was getting was too easy that he didn't have to work for.

"You hate to see a kid get a technical like that, but it did help us. We made a run out of it rather than letting them use it to their advantage."

It was especially devastating for the third-seeded Rams (10-9).

Sanders scored 13 of his 21 points in the first quarter before the consecutive fouls.

"[You] dig yourself a hole, we had no heart, no nothing in the first half," Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "I don't understand how you can come out last night and play as hard as [we] did and then come out tonight and lay down against your rival. I don't understand it. It's just frustrating is what it is."

A big part of the Red Devils' success was the combination of Peyton Montgomery and Jared Walker.

Montgomery scored nine of his 14 points in the first half, while Walker added 14 of his team-high 16 points.

Walker was especially big, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers in the first quarter and adding another in the second quarter.

"Yesterday the team was giving me some good passes out on the perimeter and I was able to step into them and really knock them down," Walker said. "So I had a lot of confidence coming into today and really shot it."

Added Govreau: "He's one of those kids that hasn't played the last couple of years, he's a big baseball guy, but he decided to come out this year and I'm glad he did. Just kind of getting him back in the flow, he's got 15, 16 games and really is starting to play well. He played well at the beginning of the year, but now he has more confidence and his shots are falling and we have another scorer."

The Rams refused to let a poor first half and the two big Chaffee performers break them.

Scott City showed an energy it lacked in the first half as it slowly picked away at the Chaffee lead, cutting it to 52-44 entering the final quarter.

Ryan Brock scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter to get the Rams back in the game.

Sanders opened the fourth with two free throws and Brock hit a basket followed by a Sanders' basket to cut the lead to 52-50.

The Rams pulled even 53-53 on a Sanders' conventional 3-point play with 3 minutes, 46 seconds remaining.

"Our kids finally decided to show up and play a little bit," Dannenmueller said. "They're on their own agenda I guess. ... The bottom line is we should have never been in that position. If we would have come out and played in the first half we would have won that game.

"It wasn't anything different, we just had better effort in the second half. I don't know why they didn't show up in the first half. I guess they just weren't ready to play. I guess that's my fault."

Chaffee showed its own fight in the fourth.

The Red Devils never let Scott City move ahead and scored six of the game's final eight points.

"Coaches did a really good job tonight when we were getting stressed," Walker said. "Nothing was going our way, so he let us calm down and we finally started playing our game again."

Charlie Montgomery added 12 points for Chaffee, which avenged a recent overtime loss to the Rams in Scott City.

Chaffee 21 18 13 7 -- 59

Scott City 17 9 18 11 -- 55

CHAFFEE (59) -- Jared Walker 16, Peyton Montgomery 14, Cody Johnson 3, Charlie Montgomery 12, Trevor Morehead 5, Jimmy Golden 6, Tyler Golden 3. FG 22, FT 10-13, F 15. (3-pointers: P. Montgomery, Walker 3, Johnson. Fouled out: none.)

SCOTT CITY (55) -- Ryan Fortner 6, Jessie Sanders 21, Ryan Brock 21, Jonathan McFall 4, Trent Pobst 3. FG 23, FT 8-11, F 14. (3-pointers: Sanders 2. Fouled out: none.)