Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Chaney’s Cliffton Scott skies above Orange defenders for a layup Friday night at Chaney High School. Scott scored 19 points in Chaney’s 71-38 win.

YOUNGSTOWN — Chaney relies on consistent production from star forward Jason Hewlett on any given night.

But, who steps up behind him to complement the scoring for the Cowboys can vary on a game-to-game basis.

On Friday, it was junior forward Cliffton Scott’s turn, as he scored 19 points to help the fourth-seeded Cowboys down No. 24 seed Pepper Pike Orange 71-38 in the Division II Northeast 1 district sectional final.

“He can do everything,” said Chaney head coach Marlon McGaughy. “He’s a journeyman and he does a little bit of everything for us — he can guard, he can rebound, he’ll dive on the floor. He’ll run through a wall for us.”

Scott, who McGaughy calls Chaney’s “X-factor,” scored his points on an efficient 9-for-11 shooting night against the Lions, including hitting a string of seven straight shots at one point between the second and third quarters.

“His motor is like no other,” Hewlett said. “He’s just a big part of this team. He’s finally coming into himself. He’s finally getting confidence and we just want him to keep going and going.”

Chaney wasted no time against the overmatched Lions, running out to a 23-5 lead in the first quarter.

Hewlett led the way with 15 points during the period. He ended up finishing with 22 for the game to lead all scorers.

“It was our last home game, so we didn’t want to lose and didn’t want to have a bad last home game, so we just played the way we do,” Hewlett said.

Chaney’s defense played a big part in quelling Orange offensively. The Cowboys forced turnovers, which turned into transition baskets and fast-break opportunities, and attacked the offensive glass, getting countless second-chance opportunities.

As a result of the Cowboys defense, the Lions struggled just to get shots off at times, finishing with just 40 shot attempts compared to 61 for Chaney.

“We played really good defense and we did what we hadn’t been doing lately — boxing out and getting a lot of rebounds,” McGaughy said. “Turnovers turn into offense. That’s what we’ve been doing all year trying to turn teams over and slow them down on that end, so it worked out for us (Friday night).”

Chaney’s depth was also on full display against the Lions.

Normally, the Cowboys play about 8-10 players per game, but on Friday, 13 players registered on the stat sheet, while 15 received game time.

“When you pressure a lot in the full court, you have to play a lot of guys, so we’ve been preparing them all year for the tournament,” McGaughy said.

With the win, the Cowboys now advance to face No. 3 seed Alliance in the district semifinal on March 2 at 7 p.m. at Boardman. The Aviators defeated No. 22 seed Geneva 81-54 on Friday.

“We’re just going to take things one game at a time and see where things take us,” McGaughy said.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com