C2D3 BKB: Oran gets past Chaffee - again

BLOOMFIELD – There is an adage in sports that it is difficult to beat a comparable team twice in the same season, and in the case of Oran High School varsity boy’s basketball, it has had to deal with its counterpart at Chaffee High School three times annually in two of the past three seasons, and four times this year.

The Eagles showed on Tuesday that they don’t much care about adages, because they methodically pulled away from the Red Devils for a 65-54 win in the opening round of the MSHSAA Class 2 District 3 Tournament at Bloomfield High School.

“When teams know each other as well as we do,” veteran Oran coach said of Chaffee, “and they are well-coached, I just challenged our kids.”

The Eagles (12-14) have now beaten the Red Devils this winter by margins of seven (twice), three (in overtime), and then Tuesday’s double-digit victory. The latest win was the 16th consecutive Oran victory in the series dating back over six years.

The Red Devils (9-16) had dug themselves a 10-point hole by halftime and still trailed 49-42 early in the fourth quarter. However, they began to battle back into the game and cut the margin to five points.

“We missed two free throw blockouts,” Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. “In close games, and this time of the year, you’re not going to win if you allow things like that to happen.”

Both teams were in search of some positivity after enduring frustrating seasons.

The Red Devils have lost nine times this season by single digits.

“To go even further than that,” Govreau explained recently, “of those nine losses, in seven of them, we have led in the fourth quarter and still ended up losing.

“If you look at our record, you may not think that we are very tough.”

The same could be said of Oran.

The Eagles have strung together 14 consecutive winning seasons prior to this year, and have suffered through eight single-digit defeats.

“We’ve had a rough stretch,” Shoemaker said. “I give our kids credit, they stayed balled into what we were doing.

“We are starting to see the rewards of that, finally.”

Tuesday’s win was the fourth consecutive for Oran.

The Eagles missed eight of their 22 free throw attempts but managed to make eight in the final period, which helped seal the win.

Chaffee, on the other hand, missed 9 of its 13 free throws, which obviously, didn’t help its chances.

“Coach Shoemaker said that we could play 10 times and they may beat us all 10,” Govreau said. “It comes down to who makes shots.”

Chaffee had just two fewer 2-pointers made in the game than Oran and hit six 3-pointers to the Eagles’ five. However, the 14-4 free throw advantage.

Eagle senior Elijah Shoemaker led his team with a game-high 25 points while senior Nolan Loper (12 points) and junior Kole Burger (11 points) also contributed.

Chaffee senior Levi McKinnie had 24 points in his final hoop game for the Red Devils while senior Blake Yarbro (eight points), freshmen Nolan Fowler and Rolen Reischman each tallied seven points.

Oran’s reward for advancing is a Thursday tilt at 6 p.m. with top seed Puxico (20-5).