Chaffee girls basketball team uses strong second half to top Kelly

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Chaffee girls basketball team has relied on its good outside shooting and fast break offense to provide wins all season.

It's worked for them so far, but as the new year begins Chaffee coach Darrin Pruitt and the Red Devils have added a new strength to their game, which they demonstrated against Kelly on Monday night.

Chaffee forced 20 Kelly turnovers and took down the Hawks for the second straight time this season in a 61-56 victory at Chaffee High School.

"I've had more than one coach say that I've got all these shooters and I just keep pulling them off the bench," Pruitt said. "That's a great problem to have, but we've been working on our defense and I think that helped us a lot tonight. That's why we work on the defense part of it because we do have those shooters and we needed that other extra part, and it's a good way to start this new year."

The Red Devils defeated Kelly earlier this season, 65-63, in the Lady Devils Invitational championship game.

Kelly coach Rod McQuerter said he didn't expect to lose consecutive games to the Red Devils, especially after a strong start Monday.

"The girls came out and played hard. There were a few times the ball didn't bounce our way, but we still kept a positive attitude," McQuerter said. "Give Chaffee credit. They played hard, came out and hit some big shots, and we missed some big shots. That's basketball. I'm not upset at our girls. They played as hard as they possibly could and like I told the girls, 'It's early.' It's very early, and we like a game like this. Our girls still play hard even when they're down and they have a positive attitude."

Kelly (6-3) led 8-4 with 3 minutes, 4 seconds to play in the first quarter, but Chaffee pulled even at 9-9 by the end of the period.

The Hawks used another 8-4 run to start the second, and led 17-13 with 4:42 to play in the half. Tori Duenne, and Kristie Brucker each scored four points in the paint during the spurt.

Julia Sutterfield on Chaffee's next possession to cut the lead to 17-15.

Kelly scored its next eight points from under the basket to take a 25-22 lead at halftime.

The Hawks scored half of their points in the paint in the first half.

Pruitt said he reminded his players not to give up, despite trailing at the break.

"The message was to just keep chugging away," Pruitt said. "You don't quit till that final buzzer, and our girls knew that."

Chaffee (8-2) grabbed its first lead of the game at 29-27 with 5:11 to go in the third when Jordan Pruitt hit a jumper. The Red Devils forced two straight turnovers and converted those miscues into four points to extend their lead to 33-29 with 4:18 left in the third.

McQuerter said Kelly stopped working the ball inside, which had brought them success earlier in the game.

"We got away from it, and that's called high school girls basketball," McQuerter said about the Hawks' post play in the second half. "These aren't professional players and sometimes they forget what got them there. We'll learn from it. We'll practice tomorrow and learn from it, but those are just little things that we need to fix."

Duenne added two free throws to cut the lead to two points and added another bucket to tie the game at 35-35 before Tessa Johnson scored a layup to help the Hawks regain a 37-35 lead with 2:25 to go in the third.

However, a 3-pointer from Dakota Pepple and a layin by Wilhite put Chaffee ahead 40-37. The Red Devils never trailed again.

"We got a lot of stops and created a lot of issues for them," Pruitt said about Chaffee's defense in the third quarter. "We don't prepare for any one team, but we worked on closing out. We worked on denying and that sort of stuff, so it seemed to help us when they tried getting the ball in there down low."

Kelly tied the game at 43-43 with 5:54 to play when Johnson hit two shots from the charity stripe, but a Pruitt jump shot prompted a 13-2 run to close out Kelly for good.

Ivie led the Hawks with 13 points, while Duenne and Johnson each added 12.

"We have a very good team in terms of balance," McQuerter said. "The three games that we have lost, they've been very close and haven't been blowouts. We want the girls to understand that, and I told them, 'You're there. These are things you can work on. These are things we can work on in practice early. These are things we need to work on now before we get to districts because once you get to districts, that's when you don't want to make those mistakes.' We have some seniors on our team, but we're still a very young basketball team."

McQuerter said he's not focused on the Hawks' record and is impressed with the way they're improving in practice and games.

"Like I told the girls, 'Don't worry about your end record, just worry about enjoying the game,'" McQuerter said. "At the end of the day, a year from today nobody is going to remember our record. The most important part we're trying to do is enjoy the journey, and that's what we're doing right now. I guarantee you by the end of the season the ball will bounce their way."

Pruitt had 13 points for the Red Devils and Lindsey Harrell netted 10.

Chaffee will prepare for the Scott-Mississippi Conference tournament, which begins Monday, and will look forward to facing Kelly again later in the season.

"We're just going to keep plugging away," Pruitt said. "I know we'll meet Kelly again soon, and they're a great ball team. We'll meet them next time at their place and look forward to it."

Kelly 9 16 12 19 -- 56

Chaffee 9 13 18 21 -- 61

KELLY (56) -- Logan Ivie 13, Tessa Johnson 12, Tori Duenne 12, Kristie Brucker 6, Morgan LeDure 4, Kaylee Scherer 4, Tiffany Gibson 2. FG 22, FT 3-7, F 17. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none)

CHAFFEE (61) -- Jordan Pruitt 13, Lindsey Harrell 12, Kylie Wilhite 10, Dakota Pepple 7, Mary Beth Knutson 6, Julia Sutterfield 6, Lindsey Koch 5, Carleigh Burnett 2. FG 24, FT 11-21, F 15. (3-pointers: Pepple 1, Pruitt 1. Fouled out: none)

JV -- Chaffee defeated Kelly 37-27.