Oran girls basketball team marches past Chaffee into district final

Editor's note: Chelsie Whitlow's name has been corrected in the box score.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Oran girls basketball team had a plan heading into Monday night's Class 2 District 3 semifinal against Chaffee: Get an early lead, keep the pressure on, and don't let off the gas until the game is over.

Mission accomplished.

Oran jumped to an early 8-0 lead, and it's trademark pressure defense created 20 first-half turnovers as the Eagles ran away with a 61-25 victory at Chaffee High School.

The win set up a district championship showdown Thursday night with Bismarck (17-9), a 56-53 winner over Viburnum in the evening's other semifinal.

"Especially being on their home floor, that's what we were looking to do, get off to a quick start, try to quiet the crowd and try to get them frustrated early," Oran coach Ethan Evans said.

Oran (17-5), the district's top seed, showed its versatility, forcing 12 turnovers in the first quarter while limiting the fourth-seeded Red Devils to just seven shots from the field. Meanwhile, the Eagles were 6 of 18 from the field, including four 3-pointers -- three by senior guard Chrissy Sauceda -- in building a 19-6 advantage after one period.

"She's a leader. She's our shooter," Evans said about Sauceda, who finished with 12 points. "Coming into the game, you don't know how you're going to play when you get a first-round bye. Just to come out and for her to hit some big shots like that early, it'll calm the nerves for everybody else."

Sauceda said she was feeling confident early.

"I was ready go," she said. "Everybody was."

The Eagles never let up in the second quarter, building a 31-15 lead at intermission behind seven steals from senior guard Addie Kielhofner, who finished with nine steals to go along with eight points.

"We needed to let everybody know that we're going to fight until the end," Kielhofner said. "We need to be ready for districts. We needed to step up and play a full game."

Four Eagles scored in double figures, led by Taylor Nenninger's 16 points. Ashlyn McIntosh added 11 points and Allie Cummins 10 as Oran shared the ball effortlessly.

"We put it all together for this game," said Cummins. "Now we're just ready for a championship. We've been working hard all year. We work nice together."

Any thoughts Chaffee had of slicing into Oran's lead were doused when the Eagles closed the third quarter with a 16-0 run to boost their lead to 51-20 heading into the final quarter.

Chaffee coach Darrin Pruitt had stressed the importance of valuing each possession, and admitted the early turnovers helped put his squad in a hole they couldn't dig out from. Chaffee wound up turning the ball over 30 times for the game.

"Turnovers was the word of the night," Pruitt said. "We've been getting better. ... We're working as a committee to handle the ball this year. I'm still proud of them. I think they did a good job out there. Oran's just a really quick team. They play fast, and they feed off of those turnovers. Any time we gave them one, they'd just go down and score."

Sophomore guard Julia Sutterfield, who led Chaffee with 10 points, said the Red Devils never got on track offensively. Although the Red Devils shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, they managed just 12 shots compared with 32 for Oran.

"I think that if we would've just ran the offense that we had set up and moved ...," she said, letting the thought trail off. "We're capable of moving the ball a lot better than that. We just need to get the right mindset and move the way we know we can."

Junior guard Jordi Pruitt admitted she was disappointed, but eager for next season, when the Red Devils return all five starters from a team that finished 8-14.

"We start two juniors and three sophomores, so I'm pretty excited about next year," she said. "And we have some more talent coming up."

Chaffee 6 10 4 5 -- 25

Oran 19 12 20 10 -- 61

CHAFFEE (25) -- Jordi Pruitt 6, Julia Sutterfield 10, Lauren Whistler 3, Chelsie Whitlow 2, Lindsey Harrell 4. FG: 9. FT: 5-6. Total fouls: 15. (3-pointers: Pruitt 1, Whistler 1. Fouled out: none.)

ORAN (61) -- Hannah Scherer 3, Addit Kielhofner 8, Ashlyn McIntosh 11, Taylor Nenninger 16, Allie Cummins 10, Tatum May 1, Chrissy Sauceda 12. FG: 23. FT: 9-14. Total fouls: 6. (3-pointers: Sauceda 4, Nenninger 2. Fouled out: none.)