Puxico rolls past Twin Rivers to take OFC Tournament title

The Puxico Indians boys basketball team has made quite a splash in its first year in the Ozark Foothills Conference.

First, the Indians swept through the regular-season OFC slate with a perfect record, then they iced the cake Friday night by capturing the OFC Tournament championship with a 77-36 domination of the Twin Rivers Royals at the Libla Family Sports Complex

“We have played pretty well this year,” Puxico coach Bryant Fernetti said. “However we had a lot of different teams in the OFC challenge us. There are good teams in the OFC — we were just fortunate to play well against them.”

Friday's win also is the third tournament the Indians have won this season. Puxico also won the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament in December and captured the Stoddard County Activities Association Tournament title last month.

“We have had success in big games this year,” Fernetti said. “Our kids have done a great job locking in against the best competition. Any time you can win a title, it's a great day.”

Puxico (23-1) broke the game open by outscoring the Royals 23-10 in the second quarter, turning a six-point edge after the opening period into a 37-18 halftime advantage, thanks in part to a 14-4 run to open the second period.

“During the second period we started getting a better rhythm on offense and kept the pressure up on defense,” Fernetti said.

Kaysen Long hit a basket just 14 seconds into the second period, then added a 3-pointer from the corner with 6:44 left in the first half made it 19-8 — the Indians' biggest lead of the game at that point.

After Luke Hester hit a pair of free throws for Twin Rivers with 6:20 to go before the intermission, Jett Hancock drained a trey with 5:48 to go before halftime, then Long connected on his second triple from the corner of the half less than a minute later to make it 25-10 Indians.

Hancock then followed up a Luke Hester basket with another 3 from the corner to make 28-12 with 4:16 remaining in the half to cap the run.

The Indians did not let up after the break.

Luke Hester opened the third period with a basket 20 seconds into the quarter to cut the Twin Rivers deficit to 37-20, but the Indians scored 21 of the next 24 points to effectively ice the game. Burchard's jumper roughly a minute later gave Puxico its first 20-point lead of the night at 41-21, and Jarrett Powell's triple with 1:23 left in the period capped the 21-3 run and gave the Indians a 58-23 lead.

Jett Hancock paced Puxico with 17 points, while Landan Burchard added 15 and the duo of Scyler Zimmerman and Kaysen Long had 12 apiece.

Luke Hester led the Royals with 11 points.

Twin Rivers heads to Portageville on Monday, while the Indians are slated to host Woodland on Tuesday, weather permitting.