RED DEVILS CAPTURE CONOSOLATION TITLE IN OT

With the University High Christmas Tournament's 16-team field being so balanced, there was a lot of pre-tournament talk about dark horses.

But nobody was talking about 14th-seeded Chaffee.

The Red Devils (4-2) proved they're worth talking about Saturday as they completed a surprising run through the consolation bracket, defeating No. 13 Kelly (4-6) in an 84-83 overtime thriller to take ninth place.

"I think Kelly suffered from what a lot of teams suffer from and that's a Cinderella story," said Chaffee coach Brian Horrell. "I don't know what we were running on in the fourth quarter and overtime with seven players. It's a heart-wrenching story that ended like a Cinderella story should."

It was a game where the Red Devils could've folded twice.

Chaffee had to leap its first hurdle when Kelly jumped out to a 47-34 lead with a minute left in the first half.

The Red Devils had to overcome another obstacle when tournament scoring champion Matt Stroup was sidelined for five minutes in the third quarter with four fouls.

But that five-minute period in the third is when Chaffee came together. Stroup left the game with Chaffee trailing 51-44. When he returned at the beginning of the fourth, the Red Devils -- after cutting their deficit to one point -- trailed 63-58.

"We had to find a way," Horrell said. "(Chase) Eskew hit a three or two there to help us buy some time and he got on a roll and he got some confidence which is what he needed. He responded."

Eskew was huge in the second half, scoring 15 of his 26 points in the third and fourth quarters. Eskew hit two mammoth threes in back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter -- including one with a defender in his face -- to put Chaffee up by five.

But Kelly scored the last five points of regulation to send the game into overtime knotted at 75.

Stroup took over in overtime, scoring six of his team-high 31 points. His 119 points in the tournament is thought to be a record.

Kelly had taken an 82-80 lead with 59 seconds left in overtime when Michael Romas -- who scored a tournament single-game high 37 points -- scored from underneath the basket.

But Stroup answered with a tough runner with 42 seconds left to tie the game.

Romas, who scored 22 points in the first half, made one of two free throws with 19 seconds to go and with three seconds remaining, Stroup swished two free throws to win the game.

"I think we got pretty lucky," Horrell said. "Romas just killed us. Kelly played a great game."

Brett Burger, who hit a three with 1:09 left to tie the game at 75, ended up with 15 points.

For Chaffee, G.P. Glueck scored 11.

Both teams shot well from the foul line. Chaffee made 24 of its 33 free throws (73 percent), while Kelly hit 20 of 26 for 77 percent.