Chaffee boys reach semifinal round of Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament

DELTA, Mo. -- It's never easy losing a star player, especially on the cusp of the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament.

The Chaffee Red Devils aren't making any excuses.

The Red Devils (11-4) improved to 2-0 while playing without standout guard Peyton Montgomery with a 81-50 victory over Kelly in the opening round Tuesday night.

Chaffee also beat the Hawks 61-31 on Friday night in its first game without its point guard, who recently had season-ending shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum suffered during the football season.

With Montgomery out, several new leaders are emerging for the Red Devils.

Chaffee’s Layton Tenkhoff takes a shot against Kelly during their quarterfinal game in the Scott-Mississippi Conference tournament Tuesday in Delta, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

This time against the Hawks (2-11), it was Layton Tenkhoff's turn to shine. The senior guard netted a game-high 27 points to pace Chaffee.

"He's one of those guys, since I've had him as a freshman, he's always had the ability to put up big numbers offensively," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. "I guess he's never really thought he's had to, and he's taken it upon himself and knows that shots are going to be there for him. He does a good job of getting us in our offense. He's able to take somebody off the dribble and get to the basket. He's stepped up and he's very capable."

Added Tenkhoff: "I got to step up a lot knowing he's out. But we can't use him as an excuse, we still have to come out, go to practice, play good and we have to come out and be ready to play."

Chaffee appeared ready to play against Kelly.

The third-seeded Red Devils started slow but controlled every aspect of the boards to put Kelly away.

Chaffee consistently got second chances on the offensive glass and limited the Hawks to few opportunities on the defensive end.

"We controlled the boards, I thought, on both sides," Govreau said. "That's one thing we talked about with losing Peyton -- he averaged 10 rebounds a game, so that's something we knew that everybody was going to have to step up and take care of that. It wasn't just going to be one person."

The Red Devils trailed 13-12 four minutes into the game before closing the quarter on a 6-0 run.

The Hawks struggled mightily on the glass and compounded the issue with foul trouble.

"They're a good offensive rebounding team," Kelly coach Josh Eftink said. "They have some guys that crash the boards pretty good, and we didn't do a very good job keeping them from getting some second-chance points. It also hurt us that we put them on the foul line 34 times. We were pretty handsy and not moving our feet very well defensively tonight."

Kelly closed the lead to 20-17 two minutes into the second quarter before Chaffee used a 15-4 spurt to close the quarter.

"We had some good combinations of kids working pretty well offensively," Eftink said. "Then defensively it killed us because they'd get in foul trouble, so we had to make substitutions [and] it kind of screwed up some good things offensively that were going on."

Any signs of Chaffee struggling without Montgomery were silenced.

"That's the good thing about having the experience we have with four solid seniors," Govreau said. "A lot of kids, they see their best player going down and they'll cash it in. It hurt obviously losing him, but they weren't just going to cash it in. They still have the talent and ability to be really good if they play together. I'm proud that the two games we've played so far that we've improved in a lot of areas that we had to without him."

The Red Devils put the game away in the second half behind strong performances from Charlie Montgomery and Trevor Morehead.

Montgomery scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half.

"After the first half, for some reason I felt a little bit more energized," Montgomery said.

Morehead was a load in the paint, scoring 15 points and snagging numerous rebounds.

"He's a bull in there," Govreau said "Whenever he demands the ball, if they're going to play behind him and we get him the basketball, he's tough to stop."

The Red Devils advance to face second-seeded Oran on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. in the second semifinal. Top-seeded Scott County Central and East Prairie will meet in the other semifinal at 7 p.m.

Kelly 13 8 14 15 -- 50

Chaffee 18 17 20 26 -- 81

KELLY (50) -- Gaven Ray 15, Dalton Huffman 2, Jerrod Lynn 1, Evan Abernathy 10, Josh Roberts 9, Derrick Garner 6, Ty Householder 1, Clay Williams 6. FG 13, FT 6-12, F 24. (3-pointers: Ray 2, Roberts 2, Williams 2. Fouled out: Huffman, Abernathy)

CHAFFEE (81) -- Layton Tenkhoff 27, Storm Estes 6, Jimmy Golden 7, Charlie Montgomery 26, Trevor Morehead 15. FG 28, FT 19-34, F 13. (3-pointers: Tenkhoff 1, Estes 1. Fouled out: none)

Oran 81, Delta 30

Hunter Schlosser finished the night with 22 points as the Eagles posted the road victory against Delta.

Chance Tenkhoff added 16 points for the Eagles, while Jacob Priggle had 12.

Delta's Trevor Glaus finished with seven points.

Oran 27 17 22 15 -- 81

Delta 0 9 12 9 -- 30

ORAN (81) -- Thomas Trankler 8, Jacob Priggel 12, Chance Tenkhoff 16, Seth Ressel 6, Garrison Mangels 8, Hunter Schlosser 22, Anthony Pobst 1, Cash Kinney 8. FG 35, FT 8-14, F 6. (3-pointers: Mangles 1, Schlosser 2. Fouled out: none)

DELTA (30) -- Trevor Glaus 7, Charlie Ledbetter 5, Cory Keys 5, Jesse Nance 4, Alex Lashley 9. FG 10, FT 4-6, F 9. (3-pointers: Ledbetter 1, Keys 1. Fouled out: none)