Chaffee defeats Advance in opener

The members of the Chaffee boys basketball team had seen an 11-point first-half lead over Advance dwindle down to a tie early in the third quarter. So when the Red Devils held a six-point lead with one quarter left to play in its opening round game against Advance, they knew that it wasn't over.

Seventh-seeded Chaffee started the final quarter of its opening game Thursday in the Southeast Missourian Christmas tournament with a 9-3 run that featured two 3-pointers from junior Peyton Montgomery and helped lead to a 75-61 victory over No. 10 Advance.

"They were huge shots," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. "One thing that I've been trying to do -- first couple games of the year I haven't done a very good job of getting him rest. He's wore down and hasn't been able to finish games for me, even last year and the beginning of this year. So something that I'm trying throughout the game is to make sure him and Leyton [Tenkhoff], they all get breaks. A lot of times they don't want to come out of the game, but they're starting to understand that 32 minutes they can't play as hard as they possibly can the whole time.

"It's big that he hits those shots and the last few games we've had now he's really been able to close for us, which is big. Good to see that. It's big when he hits those shots. A lot of times they feed off his energy so when he hits a big 3, defensively we get better. It was a huge momentum swing for us in the fourth quarter."

Peyton Montgomery scored a game-high 27 points, 20 of which came in the second half. He credited the post players for "stepping up" in the win. Charlie Montgomery finished with 16 points and scored 13 in the first half. Trevor Morehead finished with 12.

"My first half I just didn't get it going, and I knew that I'd probably wear [my defender] out the second half because I was still up," Peyton Montgomery said. "I knew if we could put the dagger in them it'd be good."

Advance senior Lane Below drives past Chaffee senior Leyton Tenkhoff during the Hornets’ 75-61 loss in the first round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Thursday at the Show Me Center. (Adam Vogler)

The two teams met on Saturday in the weather-delayed finals of the Oran Invitational and Chaffee won 92-82.

Govreau knew from that game that the Hornets were capable of making a comeback. He noted that his team was up by several points on Saturday before making a run following a timeout by Advance coach Bubba Wheetley.

"I think during the middle of the second quarter we were up nine or something and he called a timeout and I said, 'This is basically the same thing that happened Saturday,' and I said, 'We can't let them go on a run,' which they did a little bit," Govreau said. "I mean at one point we're up by nine and we foul them on a 3-pointer and he makes all three of them, so that closed the gap a little bit. But two good teams like that that are battling -- there's a game of runs, and I'm just glad that our runs added up to more than what theirs did."

Chaffee had a 30-19 lead over the Hornets with 5 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first half when Wheetley called a timeout. Advance went on a 14-7 run over the rest of the half to pull within four points.

Chaffee junior Peyton MontgomeryCQ drives between Advance junior Dalton WilsonCQ, left, and senior Lane BelowCQ during the Red Devils' 75-61 win over the Hornets in the first round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Thursday, Dec. 26, at the Show Me Center. (Adam Vogler)

The Hornets scored the first four points of the second half to tie the game at 37. The teams traded baskets, but a pair of turnovers and fouls by Advance allowed the Red Devils to pull ahead by as many as nine.

Advance's Lane Below, who scored 38 points when the teams met Saturday, was fouled shooting a 3 in the final seconds of the third quarter and made all three free throws to make it 36-30. Below led Advance with 25 points.

"He's a good player and you know he's going to get his, but we wanted to at least make him work for all of them," Govreau said. "For the most part we did. He's a good player, and he's going to get his. A couple times we broke down defensively, but we were making them work for them."

Wheetley wasn't pleased with his team's effort and felt that they had a good chance of pulling off the upset heading into the game.

"Played awful. We just played awful," Wheetley said. "They outplayed us, they outhustled us. They just outplayed us, outcoached us. Bottom line that's all I can say. We just got our butts kicked."

Advance (4-4) plays No. 15 seed Bell City at 10:30 a.m. today at the Show Me Center in the quarterfinal round of the consolation bracket.

"I don't know of many [positives to take away]," Wheetley said with a laugh. "I think the kids, they may wake up. When they go in they're going to just work harder. It's all we can do."

Chaffee (7-1) advanced to play No. 2 Charleston at 6 p.m. today in a quarterfinal.

"We know it's going to be a challenge, but I think our kids are looking forward to it," Govreau said. "My whole team is football players for the most part and Charleston's the team that gave us our first loss this year, so they're going to come tomorrow and they're going to be excited to play them.

"Now whether we can beat them I don't know, but we're going to give our best effort and I think that the kids aren't going to back down. They're going to be ready to go so I'm looking forward to it."

Advance 15 18 17 11 -- 61

Chaffee 20 17 19 19 -- 75

ADVANCE (61) -- Zane Eggimann 2, Austin Miller 1, Lane Below 25, Eli Seger 10, Alex Morse 3, Dalton Wilson 9, Ben Trout 11. FG 20, FT 19/25, F 26. (3-pointers: Below 2. Fouled out: Miller, Seger)

CHAFFEE (75) -- Leyton Tenkhoff 9, Peyton Montgomery 27, Jimmy Golden 6, Tyler Golden 5, Charlie Montgomery 16, Trevor Morehead 12. FG 27, FT 18/33, F 17. (3-pointers: P. Montgomery 3. Fouled out: C. Montgomery)