Christmas Tournament: Oran beats Chaffee to earn chance to defend fifth-place title

~ The Eagles defeated Chaffee 70-65 to advance to Monday's fifth-place game

No. 7 Chaffee came close to pulling off a rare upset at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament with the help of a second-half turnaround.

No. 6 Oran led by as many as 13 points in the first half and held off a comeback to defeat the Red Devils 70-65 in a fifth-place semifinal Saturday at the Show Me Center.

Oran took a 13-point lead with 3 minutes left in the first half and held a 37-28 edge at halftime.

"First off, I didn't think we came out with much energy and fire, which we dug ourselves a hole," Chaffee coach Josh Govreau said. "Down nine at halftime and luckily we were only down nine. They're a good shooting team, and they missed some outside shots, which it could've been a lot worse."

Oran junior Jacob Priggel scored to extend the lead at the start of the second half before Chaffee scored six unanswered points to cut the deficit to five.

"I just thought we lost some of our intensity," Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said. "We gave up a few easy baskets at the rim, which we shouldn't have done, and we just quit being as aggressive as we were early in the first half."

Oran increased its lead back to nine before the Red Devils used a 13-4 run to tie the game at 51 with 50 seconds left in the third quarter when junior Peyton Montgomery rebounded a miss and then made a 3-pointer.

The Eagles regained one-point advantage heading into the final quarter.

"I just told them we had to pick up the defense and rebound," Shoemaker said. "Those were the two things I thought that hurt us. And stay aggressive on offense. Like I said, we backed off a little bit, just lost some intensity. We wanted to play 32 minutes. I don't think we've done that this year. We're getting closer, but we still haven't done it."

The teams traded baskets and Chaffee led 61-60 with 4:26 left in the game before Oran scored six unanswered points -- twice in transition -- and never trailed again.

The Eagles rebounding down the stretch allowed them to get out and run against the Red Devils.

Chaffee trailed by three with 1:13 to play, but Montgomery's 3-point attempt came up short. He scored 17 points in the second half and finished with 19. Charlie Montgomery finished with 22.

"We're going to see them at least one more time this year, maybe two or three, so hopefully one of these times we'll figure it out," Govreau said.

In addition to a regular-season matchup on Feb. 4, the teams could meet conference or district tournament play or both.

Oran had four players that scored in double-figures: Priggel and Chance Tenkhoff scored 17 apiece, Seth Ressel had 14 and Hunter Schlosser led the team with 20.

Oran advanced to play No. 4 seed Notre Dame for fifth place at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Show Me Center. The Eagles defeated Advance 67-60 to claim the fifth-place trophy last season.

Chaffee 17 11 25 12 -- 65

Oran 22 15 17 16 -- 70

CHAFFEE (65) -- Layton Tenkhoff 9, Peyton Montgomery 19, Storm Estes 3, Jimmy Golden 3, Tyler Golden 5, Charlie Montgomery 22, Trevor Morehead 4. FG 27, FT 8-15, F 17. (3-pointers: L. Tenkhoff 1, P. Montgomery 1, Estes 1. Fouled out: none)

ORAN (70) -- Thomas Trankler 2, Jacob Priggel 17, Chance Tenkhoff 17, Seth Ressel 14, Hunter Schlosser 20. FG 27, FT 13-16, F 13. (3-pointers: C. Tenkhoff 1, Ressel 1, Schlosser 1. Fouled out: none)