Oran survives despite slow start

Oran coach Joe Shoemaker and senior Chance Tenkhoff weren't too pleased with their opening round win over the Woodland Cardinals.

But the sixth-seeded Eagles nevertheless turned a first-quarter deficit into a 12-point halftime lead and stayed steady in the second half to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament with a 60-45 victory.

Oran will face Central at 7:30 p.m. tonight in a quarterfinal game.

"Tonight, actually, believe it or not we didn't really get up and down like we usually do," Tenkhoff said. "I guess we didn't come out ready to play."

It certainly wasn't Tenkhoff's fault.

The senior scored nine of his game-high 17 points in the opening quarter to lead the Eagles.

Oran got off to a slow start while falling behind 10-4 before starting to play better.

The Eagles then went on a 13-0 run, including seven from Tenkhoff, to go up 17-10 and eventually lead the Cardinals 17-11 at the end of the first.

"We had a little mix-match problem with him," Shoemaker said, talking about the problem Tenkhoff presented Woodland's defense with. "We had a little bit of speed, and he tried to take advantage of it and attack the rim. He hasn't been shooting great. He started shooting a little bit better tonight, and he was aggressive with the basketball and attacked the rim, which was great for us."

Woodland’s Devon Gramlisch drives during Thursday night’s game at the Show Me Center. (Laura Simon)

Woodland failed to go down silently.

The Cardinals went on an 11-3 run to open the second quarter and took a 22-20 lead with 4 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the first half.

"I didn't feel we played very well defensively," Shoemaker said. "[Or] rebounded well, we weren't very patient on offense."

Woodland shot 4 of 6 in that stretch, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range to hang in the game.

"They got on the boards three or four times early there on us," Shoemaker said. "[It] got us a little bit in a hole. Like I said, we just didn't play very well and some of that was due to them and some things they did."

The Eagles managed to the right ship, closing the half on a 12-0 run to capture a 34-22 halftime lead.

Oran got baskets from six different players during the late first-half run.

"We did all right," Shoemaker said. "We missed a lot of shots. We're definitely better."

The late first-half surge was part of a strong offensive performance from the Eagles in the first half.

Oran made 13 of its 24 shots inside the arc (54 percent) for the half.

The second half belonged to Oran with Tenkhoff scoring eight points in the decisive third quarter.

"Just knowing who was guarding me," Tenkhoff said. "Knowing if it was a slower man I might get past them. Just shot normal, I shot better than I usually do."

Oran pushed its 12-point halftime lead to 46-28 with a 12-6 run to start the third. The Eagles eventually extended the lead to 51-34 before heading into the final eight minutes. Garret Reynolds was an offensive force for the Cardinals, scoring a team-high 16 points on an efficient 11 shots and a solid 5 of 6 performance from the charity stripe. Oran limited the junior guard to just four points in the first half.

"The Reynolds kid is a great player," Shoemaker said. "We did decent on him defensively, held him below his average, so that's nice to see."

Junior Devin Gramlisch added 14 points for Woodland, while junior Hunter Schlosser and senior Seth Ressel both finished with 10 points for Oran. Woodland, the No. 11 seed, will face the No. 14 seed Meadow Heights Panthers today at noon in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket.

Woodland 11 11 12 11 -- 45

Oran 17 17 17 9 -- 60

WOODLAND (45) -- Grindstaff 9, Devon Gramlisch 14, Garret Reynolds 16, Cole Schlief 3, Landon Johnson 3. FG 14, FT 5-8, F 11. (3-Pointers: Grindstaff 1, Reynolds 1, Schlief 1, Johnson 1. Fouled out: none)

ORAN (45) -- Hunter Schlosser 10, Chance Tenkhoff 19, Thomas Trankler 7, Seth Ressel 10, Jacob Priggel 5, Garrison Mangels 4, Cash Kinney 5. FG 25, FT 7-13, F 13. (3-pointers: Tenkhoff 1. Fouled out: none)