Oran girls basketball team exacts revenge vs. Chaffee

ORAN, Mo. -- The Oran girls basketball team had a couple of extra reasons to want to beat Chaffee in their Class 2 District 3 quarterfinal Saturday.

Senior teammate and starter Halle Woodfin had to miss the game for a scholarship interview at Missouri State.

"We really wanted to win it for her tonight because we didn't want it to be her last game," Oran coach Adam Friga said.

The third-seeded Eagles made sure Woodfin would get to play another game, defeating the sixth-seeded Red Devils 52-25 behind a strong second-half performance.

The victory also allowed Oran to avenge a Feb. 1 regular-season loss to Chaffee.

"That made us know that we can't take anybody for granted, and we have to come out and always play our hardest," Oran senior Haley Glastetter said recalling the defeat.

Both teams struggled to score early in Saturday's game before Oran's Chrissy Sauceda hit a 3-pointer to break a 4-4 tie with 45 seconds to go in the first quarter.

That basket started an 11-0 run for Oran that spanned into the second quarter.

"We were just a little out of rhythm," Friga said, pointing out that freshman Taylor Nenninger and junior Harley Hargrove played well in Woodfin's absence. "It was just a little bit different mixture starting. There was a little bit of an adjustment period. We came out a little slow, but we talked about it at halftime. We just needed to just do what we know we can and that's what we did. We just picked it up a little bit."

Chaffee narrowed the Eagles' lead to 22-16 at halftime thanks in part to an 8-0 run of its own.

"We weren't rebounding," Friga said. "We just weren't hitting the boards at all. We were just kind of sitting back on our heels not being very aggressive, and I think we changed a lot of that in the second half."

Oran allowed just nine points after halftime. The Red Devils made just 4 of the 27 shots (15 percent) they took in the second half.

"Just better effort and taking away their second opportunities by rebounding better," Friga said. "We knew they've got some kids that can shoot the ball well, and we knew we had to do a good job defending them. We did better in the second half."

The Eagles' offensive production also picked up in the second half. They scored 15 points in both the third and fourth quarters.

"We just talked about attacking on offense more and just getting to the glass," Friga said. "We just weren't being very aggressive. We really weren't. Our kids have gotten a ton better this year and we knew we were better than what we were showing out there in the first half."

Glastetter led Oran (14-12) with 18 points while Cheyanne King finished with 14 and Sauceda added 11.

Sophomore Ellie Sigman led Chaffee (4-17) with 10 points. Senior Randi Wiley finished her career with a seven-point performance.

Oran will face No. 2 seed Lesterville in the semifinals 7:30 p.m. Monday. Lesterville received a bye in the quarterfinals. Top-seeded Meadow Heights, which also received a bye, will face No. 4 Greenville in the other semifinal at 6 p.m.

Friga said he didn't know much about his team's next opponent.

"I know they're from real far away," he said.

Oran 9 13 15 15 -- 52

Chaffee 4 12 4 5 -- 25

ORAN (53) -- Taylor Nenninger 3, Haley Glastetter 18, Addie Kielhofner 6, Chrissy Sauceda 11, Cheyanne King 14. FG 23, FT 2-3, F 12. (3-pointers: Nenninger 1, Sauceda 3. Fouled out: none)

CHAFFEE (25) -- Randi Wiley 7, Adrienne Eichhorn 5, Lauren Whistler 1, Miranda Estes 2, Ellie Sigman 10. (3-pointers: Wiley 1. Fouled out: none)