Advance boys basketball team downs Malden in opener of Oran Invite

ORAN, Mo. -- After three quarters of play in its opening round game of the 58th Oran Invitational, Advance's lead had been cut to single digits.

"It was gut check time," Advance senior Lane Below said. "It was just time to go. We had to pick it up."

The fifth-seeded Hornets scored 11 unanswered points to start the fourth quarter, which was enough to give them a 20 point lead with six minutes left in the game and led to a 93-68 victory over fourth-seeded Malden.

"We weathered the storm, and I was proud of that too because we could've just sacked it in, but we didn't," Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said. "We didn't pack it in. We kept playing hard and pressing and scrapping and rebounding, and we were lucky."

Advance junior Dalton Wilson scored the first four points of the fourth quarter before Eli Seger got a steal and made a layup to give the Hornets a 67-52 lead less than a minute into the quarter.

Following a Malden timeout senior Austin Miller was fouled and made both of his free throws. Seger made a free throw and a layup before Malden broke the run with a layup by junior Chauncey McBride to make it 72-54 with 5:15 left to play.

Advance (1-0) never trailed in the game and jumped out to a 14-6 lead with 3:36 to play in the first quarter.

Advance’s Grant Woodfin takes a shot against Malden during the second quarter of their first-round game of the Oran Invitational on Tuesday in Oran, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

The Green Wave pulled within six to end the first quarter at 22-16. Malden junior Cortez Dobbins scored eight of his 35 points in the final three minutes of that quarter.

The Hornets led by as many as 17 points late in the second quarter. As the first half got down to the final 20 seconds Below had the ball stolen from him around midcourt by McBride, who missed the contested layup, but a putback cut Advance's lead to 43-29 to end the half. Below sprained his ankle when he landed and left the game for the final seconds of the half.

"Well, I was scared," Wheetley said. "I don't want to lose him. Not just for this game, but for the year. And we still don't know how bad he is. It could be cracked. We'll just have to wait and see."

Below returned for the second half and finished with 28 points, 24 of which came before halftime.

Dobbins scored 13 points in the third quarter to pull the Green Wave within nine before the Hornets took control in the fourth quarter.

"We came in tonight, and we were ready to play," Below said. "We were playing against our old coach, and we were just ready to go tonight."

Malden coach Andrew Halford had coached at Advance for the past three seasons.

"They've got a good little group there," Wheetley said of Malden. "Andrew's going to get them better. They're a young group. ... They just need work. They've got a few good athletes out there.

"And they got in foul trouble. That hurt them. That helped us. It could've went any way. They're going to be good. They'll be a contender."

Advance’s Dalton Wilson takes a shot against Malden’s Reggie Reed during the second quarter of their first round game of the Oran Invitational on Tuesday in Oran, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

The Green Wave committed 27 fouls in the game. Advance made 23-of-38 free throws.

"I'm happy with the results because we've got one kid that's played varsity level," Wheetley said. "The other kids, this is the first year they've played any varsity level. They stepped up, played hard, and I'm proud of them."

Miller finished with 21 points for the Hornets. Seger had 13 and Wilson had 12.

Sophomore Trevor Ison finished with 11 points for Malden.

The Hornets advanced to face top-seeded Oran at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in a rematch of last year's Class 2 District 3 title game that Oran won 81-74. Advance beat the Eagles 71-56 in last year's Oran Invitational to make it to the championship game.

"Oran's always a big game, and it's a big rivalry," Below said. "Over the past couple years they've ended up on top at the end of the season. Just got a lot of motivation going into Thursday."

Wheetley knows it will be tough to top the host school in the tournament semifinals and noted that Oran has at least four players that are good shooters and ballhandlers.

"We've got our work cut out for us," Wheetley said. "But we're going to come and play. We'll be ready. ... We're going to go right at them."

Advance 22 21 18 26 -- 93

Malden 16 13 23 16 -- 68

ADVANCE (93) -- Zane Eggimon 2, Austin Miller 21, Lane Below 28, Eli Seger 13, Alex Morse 4, Dalton Wilson 12, Ben Trout 7, Grant Woodfin 6. FG 33, FT 23-38, F 15. (3-pointers: Miller 3, Below 1.)

MALDEN (68) -- Shaeen Perkins 5, Chauncey McBride 2, Jeremy Jones 4, Reggie Reed 2, Dremond Robinson 7, Cortez Dobbins 35, Trevor Ison 11. FG 28, FT 8-13, F 27. (3-pointers: Perkins 1, Dobbins 2, Ison 1. Fouled out: Perkins)