CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Chaffee girls basketball team didn't like the way things went down a year ago in its own early-season tournament, when it bowed out in a semifinal.
This time around, the only acceptable outcome was playing for the tournament title.
On Thursday, second-seeded Chaffee checked off that box as it got off to a fast start, dominated on the boards and shut down No. 3 Puxico 49-23 in a semifinal of the 41st Annual Lady Red Devils Invitational Tournament at Chaffee High School.
Chaffee will face top-seeded Oran in the championship at 4 p.m. Saturday.
"That was our goal coming into the tournament. We wanted to play in the championship," Chaffee coach Andrew Boone said. "We didn't want to play in the third-place game or the consolation championship. We wanted to be back in our championship game.
"Especially coming in last year, we didn't live up to what we should have done, so we really wanted this. I thought the girls came out and they wanted it."
A 12-0 run in the game's opening minutes put the hosts up 12-1 midway through the first quarter and set the Red Devils (4-0) up for success the rest of the way.
The Indians (5-2) never got closer than eight points the rest of the way, and trailed by double digits for the final 23 minutes of the game.
"When your shots fall early it's really the perfect start," Boone said. "... I felt like that really built our confidence in the beginning to see the ball go through, especially in a game where you're never sure whether points are going to be at a premium. I think that [confidence] carried over on the defensive end."
That flipped the script on Puxico, which had blitzed Kelly to start a quarterfinal Wednesday night. But the Indians made more shots in that game's opening run than they did all of Thursday night.
Chaffee held Puxico to 6-of-43 (14 percent) shooting in the game. After shooting nearly 50 percent from 3-point range the night before, the Indians were 2 of 15 from outside the arc against the Red Devils.
"Not only do they have Sophia (Hancock) down low, but they have Faith (Oliver) and Kayt (Haynes) that can drain those 3s," Boone said. "I watched them the other night, and I tell you, they just stroked it from outside. Tonight we really focused on telling our girls they've got to close out and if they don't get there, they've got to get a hand up, they've got to yell, do something to break their rhythm. I thought my girls did a phenomenal job of closing out."
Hancock finished with another double-double, with 11 points and 14 rebounds, but there was little else to speak of for Puxico. Only three Indians scored, with Haynes adding 10 points.
Mary Beth Knutson led Chaffee with 15 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Bridgette Swinford added eight points and Katie Glueck pulled down eight boards.
The Red Devils' early run was fueled by physicality, as eight of the 12 points came in the paint, including a pair of putbacks and a pair of conventional three-point plays -- one from Glueck and one from Knutson.
In the end, Chaffee out-rebounded Puxico 43-26.
"We talked about [Hancock]. That girl is just, she'll get it. She's gonna go after it; she has a nose for the ball," Boone said. "We preached ... 'We've got to box out, because Puxico's coming. They're coming and we've got to have the ball as much as they do.'"
By the time Swinford scored on the break with a second left on the first-quarter clock, the Red Devils had an 18-7 advantage.
Haynes got to the free-throw line early in the second quarter and the Indians cut the gap to 18-10, but that was as close as they got.
Eighteen seconds later Kylie Wilhite layed the ball in to double up Puxico 20-10 and spark a 6-0 run.
Chaffee closed the half on a 5-0 swing and took a 33-15 lead at the midway point of the game.
Hancock converted a pair of buckets in the opening minutes of the second half as Chaffee went 2 minutes, 50 seconds without a point to begin the third quarter, but a Bailey Wiseman 3 gave the Red Devils a 20-point lead, 42-22, through three quarters.
Chaffee held Puxico to just one point in the final 8 minutes, as the Indians went 0 of 8 from the field to close out the game.
A return to the title game sets up another battle with the event's defending champion and district rival Oran. The two sides met four times last year, including in the Class 2 District 2 championship.
The last time the Red Devils defeated the Eagles was Feb. 3, 2015 -- a string of six consecutive losses has followed.
"These girls have shown that when they take care of the ball and play together that they can hang around," Boone said. "I believe that's the most dangerous thing. When you can hang around you just need a couple of good bounces."