Chaffee claims third place in Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament

A night after losing a 73-68 heartbreaker to Oran in the semifinals of the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament, the Chaffee Red Devils bounced back in a big way.

Chaffee (12-5) took an eight-point halftime lead and never looked back in the second half, cruising past East Prairie 83-66 to claim third place Friday night.

The Red Devils had four players finish in double-figure scoring in a balanced attack.

Trevor Morehead led the way with 27 points, Charlie Montgomery added 26, Layton Tenkhoff poured in 16, and Jimmy Golden chipped in 13.

"They're all stepping up," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. "That's what we're going to have to do. The four games we've played now without Peyton [Montgomery], we've almost had all four of them in double digits for each game, which is huge. They're all doing their part and playing together. Like I said before, they're four good seniors that have played together forever. They're playing well and I think they're having fun, so it's fun to coach right now."

The Red Devils recently lost junior point guard Peyton Montgomery to season-ending shoulder surgery.

Chaffee led 44-36 at the break and East Prairie twice cut it to six points early in the second half before the Red Devils pulled away.

Chaffee used a patient approach on offense and an effective zone on defense to gain separation.

East Prairie cut the lead to 52-45 with 4 minutes, 19 seconds left in the third quarter before Chaffee went on a 15-5 run to close the quarter.

Charlie Montgomery capped the run with a steal at midcourt and a half court buzzer beater to make it 67-50 heading into the fourth.

"I don't know what it is, but it seems like a lot we'll come out just a little bit more energized the second half," Montgomery said.

The Eagles consistently got good looks at the basket in the first half with screens that freed up players in the post. The Red Devils limited the approach in the second half.

The Eagles also hit 7 of 10 3-pointers in the opening half.

"We had talked about it before the game and we just didn't pick up on it very well in the first half," Govreau said about the screening. "They hit three [3-pointers] to start the game, and from that we were focused on the perimeter and not worried about their cutters. Then at halftime we started communicating better and switching in our zone so we kind of took away those easy looks that they got."

The Red Devils' defense was certainly key, as was getting Morehead the ball in the paint.

The Eagles had no answer for the burly senior in the post.

"I was just working for good position and my teammates were doing a great job of getting me the ball," Morehead said. "I would just capitalize when my teammates would make a good pass."

Morehead's job became even easier when the Eagles' top inside player, Damion Tipler, was hindered with foul trouble in the first half.

"We got Tipler in foul trouble there in the first quarter and the second quarter we didn't take advantage of it and be patient. They didn't have anybody that could stop him," Govreau said. "We talked about it at halftime -- you have to understand what's working for us, [Morehead's] tough to guard in there. Even if they're double and triple teaming him, somebody else is going to be open. They finally bought into it and saw what could happen, so hopefully we'll take something from that as the year goes on."

Morehead wasn't the only player stepping up offensively.

Montgomery was solid all night long, displaying range that the senior forward usually doesn't show.

"I have to shoot more outside shots to try and fill Peyton's role," Montgomery said. "I feel like we've all been shooting pretty well. Like I said, I've been shooting a lot more outside and they've been falling so good for us."

The Eagles opened the game with three 3-pointers and Chaffee trailed 9-8 in the first before going on a 10-0 run.

The loss of Tipler to foul trouble was key in making an early run.

The Red Devil's limited Tipler to just eight points and did a solid job keeping the senior forward off the glass.

"Tipler's a good player, and one of my personal goals going in was to try and keep him off the glass and keep him from scoring as much as I could," Morehead said. "I thought I did a pretty good job with that, especially with my teammate's help defense."

Seth Bays led the Eagles with 19 points, including five 3-pointers, and Dustin Bryars added 14 points that included four 3-pointers.

Chaffee 19 25 23 16 -- 83

East Prairie 15 21 14 16 -- 66

CHAFFEE (83) -- Layton Tenkhoff 16, Storm Estes 1, Jimmy Golden 13, Charlie Montgomery 26, Trevor Morehead 27. FG 23, FT 19-30, F 13. (3-pointers: Tenkhoff 1, Golden 3, Montgomery 2. Fouled out: none)

EAST PRAIRIE (66) -- Seth Johnson 4, Seth Bays 19, Dustin Bryars 14, Brett Ellis 3, Mack Marcum 6, Damion Tipler 8, Cade Douglas 8, Brandon Evans 4. FG 15, FT 6-12, F 20. (3-pointers: Bays 5, Bryars 4, Marcum 1. Fouled out: none)