Chaffee claims Christmas Tournament consolation title

The Chaffee High School boys basketball team has struggled over the years, its last winning record believed to have come more than 30 seasons ago.

But the Red Devils are thriving so far this year, and they capped the program's best Southeast Missourian Christmas tournament showing in over a decade Thursday.

Chaffee, the No. 10 seed, slipped past ninth-seeded Oak Ridge 55-49 to win the consolation championship that goes to the ninth-place finisher.

"It's been a long time. We've been talking about it," Red Devils junior guard Alex Crowe said. "That's a big win. We've already got as many wins as we had last year. We've got a turnaround going."

Chaffee, which had not played on the tournament's closing day since 2000 when it also claimed the consolation trophy, improved to 6-2.

"It's exciting," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. "The main thing, this is a good signature win for us. We felt like we should have beaten the other five teams we've beaten. Oak Ridge has a great team.

"Hopefully this will show us that we can come out and win some games, that we can play with anybody."

The Red Devils notched three straight tournament victories after losing to Leopold 59-36 in the opening round.

"We didn't want to lose the first game, but once we did, we knew we had a good chance to do this," Crowe said.

Senior forward Andrew Terhune led Chaffee with 17 points, eight coming during the decisive third quarter that saw the Red Devils outscore Oak Ridge 19-11 to overcome a 29-24 deficit.

"It's a huge turnaround from last year," Terhune said. "This being my senior year, it's exciting."

Oak Ridge (8-3) was paced by senior wing Brett Thomas with 20 points. He hit four 3-pointers.

"They played really well defensively. They just did not make mistakes all game," Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking said. "We're disappointed, no doubt about it. But your goal is to always be playing on the fourth day. We did that."

The back-and-forth battle featured eight lead changes, seven ties and seven-point advantages for both sides.

"It was a tough game," Terhune said.

Chaffee trailed 38-36 late in the third quarter before Terhune's basket made it 38-38, and senior guard Blake Senciboy's 3-pointer with just less than two minutes left put the Red Devils up 41-38.

The Red Devils carried a 43-40 edge into the final period and quickly made it 47-40 on buckets by junior forward Jordan Yahn and senior guard Michael Rutherford.

Chaffee then went nearly five minutes without a point and Oak Ridge scored five straight to make it 47-45.

But the Red Devils stayed strong. Terhune hit 1 of 2 free throws at the 1:17 mark, then after an Oak Ridge miss, made two more foul shots with a minute left to put Chaffee ahead 50-45.

Terhune followed with a steal that led to a pair of Crowe free throws with 35 seconds remaining for a 52-45 bulge.

Oak Ridge got no closer than four points as Rutherford made 3 of 4 free throws to ice the victory.

"We try to keep it close and hopefully we can wear you down with our depth," Crowe said. "That's what happened."

Chaffee was 8 of 10 from the charity stripe over the final 1:17.

"The guys stepped up and hit big free throws," Govreau said. "It's a big win. I'm really proud of all of them."