Scott County Central uses long-range shooting to reach Oran final

~ Scott County Central sank 11 3-pointers in a 93-86 win over Chaffee

ORAN, Mo. -- Chaffee boys basketball coach Josh Govreau told his team before its semifinal game of the Oran Invitational that the key to them winning the game was to force Scott County Central to make some outside shots.

"I told my kids that Scott County liked to get to the basket and get to the rim," Govreau said. "I told them that if we blocked out and made them hit outside shots that I thought we'd beat them."

The strategy backfired on the second-seeded Red Devils as the third-seeded Braves knocked down 11 3-pointers. Scott County Central defeated Chaffee 93-86 on Wednesday and advanced to its eighth consecutive Oran Invitational title game.

The Braves improve to 3-1 and will play top-seeded Oran in today's 8 p.m. championship game.

"We're fortunate to be there," Scott County Central coach Frank Staple said. "Chaffee is a really, really, really good team and they're physical. Trevor Morehead is really strong; Peyton Montgomery is a really good player. I mean, they gave us everything we wanted and more. We were just lucky to come out with a win."

Chaffee (2-1) took a seven point advantage into halftime, leading 45-38.

"They did what I wanted them to do," Govreau said. "The first half I thought we did a great job of keeping them off the boards, and even though they scored 38 points, most of them were off 3s.

"Second half we didn't do as good a job of blocking out, and I think a lot of that came down to our conditioning. We're not in shape yet. That week of football that we lost, we're still trying to get in game shape."

Scott County Central went on an 11-3 run to start the second half, taking a 49-48 lead with five minutes, 17 seconds left in the third quarter.

Braves sophomore Jeffery Porter scored 10 of his team's 19 third-quarter points, including a 3-pointer a little more than a minute into the half. He scored 20 of his game-high 30 points in the second half.

"When we came out we told them to put the ball in Jeff's hand, and we wanted him to get really aggressive with it, and he did," Staple said. "He was able to bring us back."

The Braves extended their lead to 10 points late in the third quarter, but Chaffee trimmed it to 69-64 by the close of the period.

"I was proud of our effort," Govreau said. "The kids came out and battled. We were expecting a game like that where it was going to go back and forth."

Chaffee pulled within two points several times during the fourth quarter, the last time with 4:08 left in the game at 77-75, but the Braves never yielded the lead.

The Red Devils fouled to stop the clock in the final minutes. Scott County Central missed 5-of-6 free throws before Porter hit 3 of 4 in the last 20 seconds of the game.

Neither team shot well from the free-throw line. Chaffee connected on 18 of 33, while the Braves were 14 of 28.

Scott County Central is looking to win its fifth straight Oran Invitational title.

"We've got to get better," Staple said. "We've got to be a better rebounding team and hit more free throws. It's a good sign that we were able to pull a win out in a game like this."

SCC 25 20 19 29 -- 93

Chaffee 21 17 31 28 -- 86

SCC (93) -- Juwan Owens 19, Trevian Moore 17, Jeffery Porter 30, Kendall Blissett 16, Javonte Daniel 4, Matthew Blissett 7. FG 34, FT 14-28, F 24. (3-pointers: Owens 3, Moore 5, Porter 3.)

Chaffee (86) -- Layton Tenkhoff 16, Peyton Montgomery 24, Storm Estes 5, Jimmy Golden 2, Charlie Montgomery 19, Trevor Morehead 18, Tyler Golden 2. FG 33, FT 18-33, F 22. (3-pointers: Montgomery 1, Estes 1.)