Donettes pull away from Neelyville to win fifth OFC Tournament in a row

The Doniphan Donettes basketball team has dominated the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament the last few years.

And after defeating all of its OFC opponents by more than 25 points during the regular season, most expected Doniphan to waltz to its fifth OFC Tournament title in a row.

The Donettes indeed won their fifth consecutive title — but the Neelyville Lady Tigers made them earn it.

After the Lady Tigers led by three points at halftime, Doniphan did not take control of the game until a run of 11 straight points in the third and fourth quarters on the way to a 49-33 win Friday night at the Libla Family Sports Complex.

“That was not the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, but sometimes those championship games turn into a little bit of an ugly mess,” Doniphan coach Adam Epps said. “But we figured it out in the second half.”

In addition to winning their fifth OFC Tournament title in a row, the Donettes also earned the 20th win of the season in the process. It is also the third victory of the season by the Donettes over Neelyville. Doniphan beat the Lady Tigers 64-36 in the finals of the River City Classic in December, then recorded a 67-41 victory in Neelyville on Jan. 23 — the Donettes’ closest contest against any OFC team this season before Friday.

Neelyville fell to 18-5. Aside from its three losses to Doniphan, the Lady Tigers’ other losses are to Class 3 schools Thayer and Portageville. Neelyville is a Class 2 school.

The Donettes scored the game’s first 11 points and held Neelyville scoreless for more than five minutes to open the game. But the Lady Tigers answered with a 7-0 run of their own and trailed just 13-7 after the opening period.

Neelyville got within one point (13-12) on a Parker Ernst 3-pointer early in the second quarter and took its first lead when Madi Prosser sank a pair of free throws to make it 14-13 in favor of the Lady Tigers.

Ellie White sank a free throw with 25 seconds in the half to give Doniphan a 17-16 lead, but a free throw and a three-point play by Prosser with 9.4 seconds left before the break gave the Lady Tigers a 20-17 lead at the intermission.

“We had to get it going,” Epps said. “We weren’t guarding like we normally guard. They were beating us to the offensive boards. They were beating us to loose balls and we weren’t running. I think they just came out and they wanted it more than we did in the first half. It’s hard to beat a team three times, especially a team like Neelyville.”

The Donettes opened the third period on an 11-2 run to take a 28-22 lead midway through the period, but Neelyville got back within one possession on a Jade Crosswhite 3-pointer midway through the period.

That’s when Doniphan shifted gears, shutting out the Lady Tigers the rest of the quarter and scoring the final six points of the frame to lead 34-25 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Kenna Kirby opened the fourth quarter scoring with a triple from the corner to give the Donettes a 37-25 lead, then Sarah Owen’s basket with 6:07 left in the game capped the 11-0 run and made it 39-25 Doniphan.

“We started really guarding and it was able to get us out and run,” Epps said. “We quit standing on offense and started moving off the ball, and everybody got involved a little bit in the offense.”

White and Carsyn Hagood both paced the Donettes with 11 points apiece, while Kirby had nine and Owen finished with six.

Prosser and Ernst led Neelyville with nine points each, while Couch had eight.