Christmas Tournament: Below's 35 leads Advance past Oak Ridge in consolation final

Advance kept hanging around and hanging around, waiting for their star player to take over.

It took him three quarters, but Lane Below eventually did just that.

The senior guard scored 17 of his game-high 35 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Hornets complete a furious comeback and force an overtime before Advance captured an 83-77 victory over Oak Ridge.

The Hornets took home ninth place and the consolation trophy at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Monday at the Show Me Center.

"We've been struggling this whole time and, really, this past couple of games," Below said. "Once we got in a rhythm, me and Austin Miller started hitting some shots, and it just really felt good to play, and I remember why I love basketball -- just having fun playing."

Below took the Hornets on his back, with some big-time help from fellow guard Austin Miller, and the two carried Advance in the latter minutes.

The Hornets trailed 51-46 heading into the final quarter, and the Blue Jays stretched the lead to 64-56 on a Ryan Below basket with 4 minutes, 33 seconds to play.

Lane Below went on a 12-2 run by himself to give Advance a 68-66 lead with 29 seconds left.

It was a far cry from the game the Hornets had played previously.

"I just told them to settle down and relax and get a good shot," Advance coach Bubba Wheatley said. "Work the ball. We have a tendency to rush shots."

Lane Below hit a shot to make it a 68-66 game with 29 seconds remaining in regulation, but Oak Ridge's Ryan Below answered with a basket with 5 seconds left.

The Hornets fumbled the ball away during their final possession to send it to overtime.

"I wasn't disappointed with the way we played," Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking said. "We stayed in our match-up [zone] the way we wanted to play it. We brought it the way we wanted to. They just hit some crazy shots. Not out-of-control shots, just really good shots. I just thought they played really well. In the fourth, I thought we answered as much as we could, but when you're hitting 2s and they're hitting 3s, the math adds up."

Advance took control in the extra period.

Oak Ridge senior Ryan Below brings down a rebound over Advance senior Lane Below during the Blue Jays' 83-77 overtime loss to the Hornets in the consolation final of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Monday, Dec. 30, at the Show Me Center. (Adam Vogler)

Miller buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 75 with just under two minutes left in overtime.

The Hornets forced a miss on the next Blue Jays' possession, and Miller added a 3-pointer to make it a 78-75 lead Oak Ridge would never recover from.

"Just try to step up a little bit and try to win the game for us," Miller said. "Just play with intensity and just have fun basically. One thing our coach always said is just go out there and have fun and play the best you can, and hopefully you'll be at a good point at the end of the game."

The Hornets didn't look like the better team in the opening 16 minutes.

Oak Ridge was solid in the first half, controlling the pace and the backboards to take a 36-25 lead.

"We spent basically all of yesterday trying to slow down their secondary break," Stoneking said. "They do a really good job of getting the ball out and getting it up the floor really fast. I thought we really did a good job of that. They didn't really get any fast-break opportunities the way they did before yesterday and the day before, so I think they rely on that a lot. When [you] take that away, they have to run a normal offense they aren't used to."

The strategy worked, limiting Lane Below to 12 points and Miller to three.

The Hornets fell behind 40-30 in the early part of the third quarter before chipping away.

Miller had nine of his 23 points in the third to keep Advance alive, and the Hornets cut the lead to 51-46 before the final eight minutes.

"We always feed off of each other," Lane Below said of Miller. "If he's playing good, I'm probably playing good. If I'm playing good, he's playing good. If I'm shooting and they're keying on me, he's probably open and I'm kicking to him, so we work together and try to get each other open shots."

Advance had a difficult time stopping the other Below, Ryan, who plays post for the Blue Jays.

Ryan Below had 36 points, with 24 in the second half, to lead Oak Ridge.

"Not much we could do with him," Wheatley said. "We're kind of small anyways. When they pound it in we tried to front him, we tried to work from behind. When he wanted the ball, he could pretty well get it. We just couldn't work it out of his hands, and he went to the offensive boards well."

Advance 9 16 21 22 15 -- 83

Oak Ridge 16 20 15 17 9 -- 77

ADVANCE (83) -- Austin Miller 23, Garrett Walker 8, Lane Below, 35, Eli Seger 4, Dalton Wilson 15. FG 18, FT 11-11 F 20. (3-pointers: Miller 6, Walker 2, Below 4. Fouled out: Seger)

OAK RIDGE (77) -- Andrew Puchbauer 8, Joe Grieme 2, Kelby Brown 5, Below 36, Jake LeGrand 20, Kolt Metje 6. FG 22, FT 18-23, F 10. (3-pointers: Puchbauer 1, Brown 1, LeGrand 3. Fouled out: none)