OIT: Bell City hoops navigating new waters of success, will play for a title

Bell City High School junior center Kale Richardson pulls down a rebound against Chaffee on Thursday in the championship semifinal round of the Oran Invitational Tournament at Oran High School.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

ORAN – It wasn’t long ago (2018 through 2022) when the Bell City High School varsity boy’s basketball program couldn’t win more than twice in an entire season. So, you’ll have to forgive the Cubs for not handling some early success this year perfectly.

Bell City improved to 2-0 on Thursday with a 52-43 victory over Chaffee in the championship semifinal round of the Oran Invitational Tournament at Oran High School.

“Good teams will put it together for four quarters,” third-year Cubs coach Luke Bixler said following the victory. “They don’t get content.”

Bixler has raised the level of expectations surrounding Bell City hoops to the point that he now is analyzing HOW his team wins, as opposed to the past couple of seasons where he was just hoping for success.

“When (good teams) see a lead,” Bixler continued, “they just build on it.”

That isn’t what Bixler’s team did against the Red Devils (1-1).

Bell City dominated early, as it built leads of 12-5 (end of first quarter), 24-14 (halftime), and 35-19 (early in the final period). However, Chaffee made it interesting late by outscoring the Cubs 24-17 over the final eight minutes.

“Physicality-wise,” Chaffee coach Josh Govreau explained of his team’s slow start, “we didn’t match them. “I knew coming in that rebounding on both ends of the floor was going to be crucial for us.

“Number one, (Bell City junior Kale Richardson) alone inside, if you don’t keep him off the boards, he gets going.”

Richardson had eight points at halftime and finished with a team-leading 17 points while Cub junior point guard Juan Hernandez added 11 points in the win.

“We got undisciplined,” Bixler said of the final quarter. “We just kind of relaxed and we went away from what was working.”

Red Devil sophomores Nolan Fowler and Rolen Reischman each had six points in the final period and finished with eight and six points, respectively.

Chaffee was paced by senior Easton Fowler with nine points while sophomore Dane McMullin (six), senior Kamden Little (five), and senior Devin Best (five) also contributed.

Bell City also got offensive production from junior Logan Pikey, who buried three 3-pointers for nine points while junior Jake Asher and senior Dawson Loomes each chipped in five points.

The Red Devils will play Westwood Baptist Academy in the third-place game tonight at 6:30 p.m. The Eagles fell to Richland (Essex) 72-37 in the other championship semifinal on Thursday.

Bell City will face the Rebels (2-1) in the championship game at 8 p.m.

“Richland does a great job of crashing the offensive boards,” Bixler said. “We’ve got to keep Richland off the boards.

“They’ve got really good guards who can shoot it and they have size down low and they have length.”

Prior to this week, Bell City had not won a single game in this tournament since 2019.