Chaffee wins 54-39 at Oak Ridge, despite sick players

OAK RIDGE — The Chaffee Red Devils boys basketball team defeated the Oak Ridge Bluejays 54-39 on Friday, Jan. 24, at Oak Ridge High School.

The Red Devils were led on offense by Devin Best with 15 points and Rolen Reischman with 10. Landon Burnett led the way for Oak Ridge with 10.

Chaffee played without Nolan Fowler and Kolby Estes, who were both out sick. Head coach Josh Govreau said the rest of the team stepped up in a big way.

“I liked our grit and our toughness. We had some younger sophomores who only really played JV and had to play big minutes tonight. Our three seniors came out with some leadership,” Govreau said. “I always tell them, ‘Rely on our defense and we'll find ways to score points.’ I thought for the most part, we were locked in on defense.”

The game was tied at 8 late in the first when Chaffee went on an 8-2 run to lead 16-10 after one. Oak Ridge shrank the lead to one but, again, Chaffee went on a run to maintain a six-point lead at the half.

The Red Devils amped up in the second half, scoring bucket after bucket in transition, while the Bluejays struggled to get any offense going. Chaffee ran away with it to get the 15-point victory.

Govreau gave credit to Oak Ridge for making his team earn the win.

“Give them credit, playing a homecoming game on your home floor, playing confidently. I saw our kids just keep grinding it out on defense,” Govreau said. “I thought if we got rebounds, we could get out in transition on them a little bit, which we kind of got. We got the game going a little faster there in the third quarter, and got some layups which kind of sparked our run.”

Chaffee travels to take on Leopold at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, while Oak Ridge heads to Oran, also at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.