IRONTON -- Clearwater held Ellington to just two thirdquarter points on its way to a win Monday in the Arcadia Valley Tournament.

"We did a little better job in the second half guarding," Clearwater coach Louis Bell said. "In the first half, it was not blocking out and giving up offensive rebounds."

Ellington coach Chris Miller wasn't impressed with his team's lone basket in the third quarter.

"We came out real slow," Miller said. "I tried to stress not to and we let fatigue get to us. You've got to give Clearwater a lot of credit, they stepped up their defense."

Kyle Randolph and Ethan Scott both had 15 points for the Tigers while Drew Morrison had 20 points to lead the Whippets.

"We spread the scoring out quite a bit," Bell said. "We hope that is something we can do all year, have different people step up."

Clearwater will play at 8 p.m. Wednesday against Lesterville while Ellington plays at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Park Hills Central.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Neelyville 71, Malden 32

The Lady Tigers scored 28 first-quarter points on its way to a season-opening win.

"We were pretty fired up having a home game," Neelyville coach Becky Hale said. "The girls have been working hard and gave it all they had out there."

Lindsey Emerson had 26 points to lead the Lady Tigers and Jackie Griffin added 16 while Chelsey Maupin had 14 points.

Trilla McCoy had 13 points to lead the Lady Wave in the loss.

The Neelyville junior varsity won, 54-16.

JR. HIGH BOYS: The Poplar Bluff eighth grade Mules beat Dexter Monday night, 48-40.

Demarcus Patterson was the high scorer for the Mules with 21 points. Rhys Griffith added 10 points in the win.

After trailing at halftime, the Mules played solid defense in the third quarter, allowing just six points on their way to their first win of the season.

JR. HIGH GIRLS: Poplar Bluff's eighth grade team finished with a 27-15 win over Farmington and the seventhgrade team beat Farmington 41-36 Friday night.

Ali Frazier, Yalonda Johnson and Danielle Farmer each had six points to lead the eighth-grade team (8-5). The Lady Mules started with solid defense as they had an 8-2 lead after the first quarter and outscored Knightettes in every quarter for the win.

Daisha Rice had 16 points to lead the seventh-grade team (9-5), all of those coming in the final three quarters of play. Courtney Raulston added nine points in the win.

The Lady Mules held Farmington to six points in the final frame while scoring 11 as they held on for the victory.