Scott County Central girls basketball surges past Chaffee in Scott-Mississippi Conference semi

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Scott County Central girls basketball team made key plays down the stretch, going on an 8-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to break open a tied game and edge past host Chaffee 52-40 in a semifinal of the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament on Wednesday night in Chaffee, Missouri.

Tied at 38 with just over five minutes to go, SCC sophomore Johneisha Daniel went to a post move in the lane to give her side a two-point lead with 5 minutes, 6 seconds left in the final period, and the second-seeded Bravettes pulled away. The bucket sparked the game-deciding swing, with Daniel knocking down two field goals and assisting on another.

A putback by LaTeisha Strickland gave SCC a 10-point lead, 48-38, with 2:58 left and the Bravettes held on to move into the tournament championship against No. 1 Oran.

Daniel led all scorers with 16 points, including 10 in the decisive fourth quarter. She added 10 rebounds. Teammate Maddison Avance joined the double-double club for SCC with 12 points and 15 rebounds, while LaQuisha Strickland added 10 points.

Daniel hadn't scored since the first quarter, sitting out much of the third after getting in foul trouble, but her side kept it close until she could get back on the floor to help spur the Bravettes to victory.

"Picking up that third foul early and sitting on the bench I told her, 'Hey, stay focused and stay ready to go for that fourth. We need you to show up.' She did," SCC coach Matt Limbaugh said. "But it was a team effort. When the team's not playing well you hope they can stay together and keep pushing through, and I thought we did a good job of that."

SCC (10-4) outscored the Red Devils 16-6 in the final eight minutes. The Bravettes held Chaffee (8-6) to just 12 points in the second half after the hosts had posted 14 in each of the first two quarters.

"I think we tried to force some things we shouldn't have been forcing," Chaffee coach Darrin Pruitt said. "We'd turn the ball over, and they'd go back and create some opportunities."

"I'm super proud of them. I think they did a great job. We stayed with them the whole time. ... You can't complain when for three and a half quarters out there we did a great job. We just started breaking down at the end, and we've got to be mentally tough and finish out the game."

Mary Beth Knutson led Chaffee with nine points, while Madeline Hendrix and Julia Sutterfield each had eight. Sutterfield scored 26 points in her team's first-round win over Delta.

"I thought Julia did a good job of driving to the hole," Limbaugh said. "She's a great athlete and a great player, and I think she just had some shots that didn't fall. She had some good looks, and they just didn't fall. The night before against Delta those shots were falling for her."

Neither side had a great night when it came to scoring. Chaffee shot 25.5 percent from the field (14 of 55) while SCC managed 33.9 percent (21 of 62). But the Bravettes controlled the boards, especially down the stretch, when it outrebounded the Red Devils 19-5 in the fourth quarter.

In addition to Daniel and Avance's double-digit rebounds, LaTeisha Strickland hauled in nine boards.

"LaTeisha Strickland, a freshman, stepped up big time for us tonight," Limbaugh said. "She really clogged up that 2-3 [zone] and gave us some big rebounds when I felt like we were kind of struggling. She came up and really put her body on some people and used that wide frame and really got some big rebounds. I thought she was kind of that spark for us in the second half."

Neither team led by more than three points in the first quarter, as Chaffee took a 9-6 advantage on a rebound and layup by Katie Glueck at the 3:41 mark, before SCC scraped back on top with free throws from Daniel and LaTeisha Strickland to take an 11-9 advantage.

But Bridgette Swinford snagged a pair of steals for the Red Devils, each time taking them coast to coast to put her side up by three again, 14-11, going into the second quarter.

It was Swinford again in transition with 6:48 remaining in the second quarter who gave the hosts the biggest lead of the game to that point, 17-13, but LaQuisha Strickland knocked down a 3-pointer to keep things close before Avance knotted the game at 18-all.

Sutterfield took advantage of a steal to get a layup before Hendrix gave Chaffee a 23-18 lead with a 3-pointer, but less than a minute and a half later, Avance got a 3 from the top left corner to tie the game at 23-all with 2:18 left until halftime.

The game continued to see-saw until Mattison Cline gave the Red Devils a 28-26 lead at the break after knocking down a 3, going inside out with Glueck.

The third quarter did little to separate the two sides, though the Bravettes did push out to a four-point lead, 36-32, when Avance knocked down a putback with 48 seconds left in the period. Sutterfield hit a pair of free throws in the waning seconds, and SCC clung to a 36-34 advantage going into the final period of play.

Knutson quickly tied things when she took a pass down low from Sutterfield 30 seconds into the fourth, and the teams remained deadlocked until Daniel got loose in the post to send SCC on its way.

"I just think we had some shots finally fall in," Limbaugh said. "We missed a lot of easy shots tonight. Chaffee was ready to go. Give Chaffee credit. They played well and they played hard the entire time."

Chaffee will face No. 4 Charleston in the third-place game at 5:15 p.m. today, while SCC gets another look at a familiar Oran squad in the championship at 7:45 p.m.

"Oran's a very good team, and they've beat us twice this year," Limbaugh said. "We've got to show up and give maximum effort."

Chaffee 14 14 6 6 -- 40

SCC 11 15 10 16 -- 52

CHAFFEE (40) -- Julia Sutterfield 8, Mary Beth Knutson 9, Mattison Cline 5, Katie Glueck 4, Madeline Hendrix 8, Bridgette Swinford 6. FG 14-55, FT 9-19, F 13. (3-pointers: Hendrix 2, Cline. Fouled out: None.)

SCC (52) -- Trinity Thomas 2, LaQuisha Strickland 10, Hailey Kesler 6, Johneisha Daniel 16, Maddison Avance 12, LaTeisha Strickland 6. FG 21-62, FT 7-11, F 16. (3-pointers: LaQ. Strickland 2, Avance. Fouled out: None.)