Chaffee girls basketball team holds off Kelly to win its tourney title

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Kelly girls basketball team knew it deserved the top seed and had played like it for most of the Lady Devils Invitational.

The Hawks had beaten their first two opponents by at least 25 points, but in Saturday's championship game second-seeded host Chaffee built an early lead and held off a late rally by the Hawks.

"Chaffee is one of the first better teams we've played this season," Kelly senior Tessa Johnson said. "We're the better team, but they got us in foul trouble tonight."

With nine seconds remaining, Chaffee had a two-point lead on the Hawks and was looking to extend its lead when Kelly senior Tessa Johnson fouled Chaffee's Lindsey Koch for her fifth foul of the game.

Johnson, Kelly's leading scorer with 19 points, was the third player to foul out of the game for the Hawks. Seniors Logan Ivie and Stephanie Worth had fouled out earlier in the fourth.

Koch missed both of her free throws and Kelly grabbed the rebound as time ticked off the clock. The ball was thrown to Anna Hughes, who was set up for a wide-open shot behind the 3-point line on the right side of the court. The sophomore put up the potential game-winning shot with five seconds to play, but it clipped off the front of the rim and bounced under the basket. Hughes tried to get her own rebound, but before she could get a handle on the ball and put up a shot the buzzer sounded, giving Chaffee a 65-63 win over Kelly Saturday at Chaffee High School.

Chaffee (5-0) coach Darrin Pruitt said he had some nerves down the stretch after Koch missed two free throws and gave Kelly a chance to win it.

"Koch is a great defensive player. She is awesome on defense, and free throws are just not her thing," Pruitt said. "That wasn't the girl we wanted them to foul, but obviously they knew that and that's why she was there. We're just happy to come out with a good stop there at the end."

The Hawks trailed by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, but reduced that deficit to four by halftime.

Kelly (3-1) coach Rod McQuerter said he wished he would have had a timeout to use in order to give his team a better chance to set up a play in the final seconds, but despite the loss McQuerter was proud of the comeback his players made.

"Our girls made the run and they came out and they played well," McQuerter said about his team's performance in the second half. "We had a chance with a 3 at the end. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn't. After 17 years of coaching I've had my fair share of shots going in like that. I'm just proud of her [Hughes]. ... Most girls wouldn't take that shot."

Hughes was frustrated after the loss, but said she felt good about the shot after it left her hands.

"There was not a lot of time, and I just shot it," Hughes said. "We're a good defensive team, and the way we play, we wear people down. That's how we came back, but it would've been better if we won. It just sucks."

A minute into the game, the two teams were tied at two points apiece, but it wouldn't stay that way for very long.

Chaffee went on a 13-0 run and led 15-2 with three minutes to play in the first.

Johnson said Chaffee used a defense that had not seen so far this season.

"I've played for coach Pruitt for a really long time and they always start out with either two on me or box-and-one," said Johnson, who played for Pruitt in the offseason. "That usually throws our offense off for a little while until we can get it inside. That's pretty much why we had a slow start."

The game looked to be slipping away from the Hawks until Kelly junior Tori Duenne scored back-to-back baskets with one minute, 56 seconds left in the first.

Duenne stole a pass on the Red Devils' next possession, took the ball coast to coast and was fouled. Duenne hit the front end of her free throws and missed the second, but Kristi Brucker was able to haul in the rebound and sink a put-back shot to bring the Hawks within eight points at 17-9.

Johnson added a free throw with 24 seconds to go in the first and Duenne came up with another steal for the Hawks and drove to the basket for an easy layup as time expired.

Both teams started slow in the second quarter, each adding just two points to their score with two minutes remaining in the half.

Off of a turnover, Kelly went on a 8-4 run and trailed 28-24 at halftime. Johnson led the Hawks with 10 points at halftime, while Julia Sutterfield had nine points to pace the Red Devils.

Pruitt said he made some adjustments at halftime and told his players to guard Johnson closely for the remainder of the game.

"I tell them all the time and I did tonight, 'A lot of our games that we play this year are going to come down to that fourth quarter. We've just got to keep going,'" Pruitt said. "I changed my lineup a little bit to start off with compared to what I've been doing just so I had a couple of subs to run in and out. Tessa Johnson is a great ballplayer, so I knew what we had to do. We wanted to get the ball in somebody else's hands as much as possible."

Kelly and Chaffee stayed within a few points of one another for most of the third quarter. With less than a minute to play, Chaffee hit two free throws to take a 45-42 lead. Brucker answered with a two-point jump shot on the next play and after the Red Devils were called for a travel, Kaylee Scherer put in a layup with 10 seconds remaining in the third to give Kelly its first lead of the game.

Kelly's lead lasted four minutes into the fourth quarter. Kylie Wilhite started a 11-7 run when she made a bucket from the top of the key. Jordan Pruitt added a 3 two minutes later and Sutterfield scored a layup followed by two free throws to put Chaffee ahead 54-53 with 4:20 to play.

Things started to fall a part for Kelly shortly after that. Worth was called for her fifth foul with 4:27 to go, and two minutes later Ivie committed her fifth foul. Chaffee converted seven points off four Kelly turnovers to extend its lead to 61-53 with under two minutes to play.

Kelly went on a 10-4 run to pull within two when Hughes hit a shot with 15 seconds remaining before her final shot of the game fell short.

"It's great to be where we're at. It's great to be a Lady Devil," Pruitt said. "This is my fourth tournament, and we've won it twice in that time. All of my seniors have been here for both of them. It's nice to see that we're getting results this early in the season."

Chaffee 17 11 17 20 -- 65

Kelly 12 12 22 17 -- 63

CHAFFEE (65) -- Julia Sutterfield 20, Kylie Wilhite 14, Jordan Pruitt 12, Lindsey Harrell 9, Mary Beth Knutson 5, Hannah Seyer 3, Lindsey Koch 2. FG 24, FT 15-37, F 22 (3-pointers: Pruitt 2. Fouled out: none.)

KELLY (63) -- Tessa Johnson 19, Kristi Brucker 16, Tori Duenne 14, Logan Ivie 4, Kaylee Scherer 4, Stephanie Worth 3, Anna Hughes 3. FG 21, FT 9-20, F 26 (3-pointers: Johnson 4. Fouled out: Johnson, Ivie, Worth.)