Christmas Tournament: Oak Ridge, Advance will vie for tourney consolation title

The Oak Ridge boys basketball team arrived at the Show Me Center early Saturday morning.

It's something coach Adam Stoneking joked his team should do more often after 67-53 victory over Scott City put the Blue Jays into the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament consolation final for a fourth consecutive season.

"I don't know if it was because we came in an hour early -- I guess we're going to start coming in an hour early to every gym and getting some shots up or something," Stoneking said. "But we came out really looking to execute and we did a really good job of that early on, and it kind of set the tone for the rest of the game."

Ninth-seeded Oak Ridge, uncharacteristically according to Stoneking, built a 10-point first quarter led while the 12th-seeded Rams started slow and made just three of their 14 first-quarter shots.

"The slow start has been our whole season," Stoneking said. "It's not just the tournament. It's every game we get off to a slow start. We've talked about warming up harder and making sure that we're mentally not just ready but hyped up and excited about playing."

Scott City closed the Blue Jays' lead to 29-25 with 1 minute, 27 seconds left in the second quarter but Oak Ridge seniors' Jake LeGrand and Ryan Below each scored a bucket before the half to extend the lead to eight.

"We didn't run anything special," Stoneking said. "I try not to run specific set plays because a lot of times if it breaks down the kids don't know what to do. We just run our offense and just hope to get a basket out of it and just look for a good shot out of your offense."

LeGrand scored a game-high 22 points to increase his tournament total to 64 points. He missed all of last season after suffering two concussions during his sophomore year.

"He' s really aggressive on the offensive end obviously," Stoneking said. "He looks to score, but he's not selfish. He's not going to go down there and take a bunch of bad shots. Probably about 90 percent of the shots he takes are good shots. …

"He brings a little bit of -- in your timeouts and in between plays he tries to get the team going. He's kind of like that energizer guy that tries to get everybody ready to go. He talks a lot. He plays solid defense. He can play two positions for us. He's a good rebounder."

Oak Ridge (4-4) will face Advance at 3 p.m. Monday for the ninth-place trophy.

Scott City 7 18 14 14 53

Oak Ridge 17 16 15 19 67

SCOTT CITY (53) -- Dylan Keller 5, Trent Pobst 21, Isiah Berry 3, Brock Uelsmann 2, Braden Cox 16, Dominic Hooper 6. FG 19, FT 11-17, F 14. (3-pointers: Keller 1, Pobst 2, Berry 1. Fouled out: none)

OAK RIDGE (67) -- Andrew Puchbauer 7, Joe Grieme 6, Kelby Brown 3, Ryan Below 18, Jake LeGrand 22, Kolt Metje 9, Clay Maintz 2. FG 26, FT 10-15, F 15. (3-pointers: Puchbauer 2, Brown 1, LeGrand 2. Fouled out: Grieme)

Advance 75, Woodland 59

No. 10 seed Advance raced out to an early lead and had an answer for each run No. 11 Woodland attempted in the second half of its 75-59 victory.

The Cardinals best attempt was thwarted when Evan Grindstaff attempted a 3-pointer late in the third quarter that could have cut the lead to eight points. Grindstaff missed and Woodland failed to get back on defense, which led to a layup for Advance's Lane Below and extended the Hornets' lead to 56-43.

Below led a balanced Advance offense with 22 points. Austin Miller and Garrett Walker both had 14 and Eli Seger finished with 10.

Garret Reynolds led Woodland, which finished the tournament 1-2 for the second year in a row, with 18 points. The Cardinals dropped to 4-5 on the season.

Advance coach Bubba Wheetley was unavailable for comment.

Woodland 10 10 25 14 -- 59

Advance 21 13 24 17 -- 75

WOODLAND (59) -- Evan Grindstaff 9, Collin Rhodes 3, Garret Reynolds 18, Cole Schlief 3, Devon Ritter 4, Landon Johnson 8, Devon Gramlisch 14. FG 14, FT 4-8, F 14. (3-pointers: Grindstaff 1, Rhodes 1, Schlief 1. Fouled out: none)

ADVANCE (75) -- Zane Eggiman 2, Austin Miller 14, Garrett Walker 14, Lane Below 22, Eli Seger 10, Dalton Wilson 4, Ben Trout 8, Grant Woodfin 1. FG 29, FT 11-12, F 15. (3-pointers: Miller 3, Walker 2, Below 1. Fouled out: none)

-- From staff reports