Menu
OFC Tournament: Neelyville pulls away in second half to get past Twin Rivers
By MARK J. SANDERS
Contributing Writer
DONIPHAN — The second-seeded Neelyville Tigers won a hard-fought Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament semifinal over cross-county rival Twin Rivers 44-26 Tuesday night at Wright Gymnasium.
Both teams started with frenetic intensity at both ends, but whether it was tenacious defense or tight shooting to blame, the opening 2-2 score held for more than four minutes.
Neelyville (15-7) managed to open a 7-2 lead, but the third-seeded Royals (12-10) cut the score to 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The scoring opened up a bit in the second quarter, with the Tigers outscoring the Royals 11-8 in the period, but Twin Rivers’ defense prevented Neelyville from penetrating the lane, forcing the Tigers to put up low-percentage perimeter shots.
“Knowing that the box-and-one defense was coming and the possibility of maybe struggling to score, we knew we had to lock down on these things,” said Neelyville head coach Brad Burdin. “We had a few key elements that we really wanted to focus on, and the boys executed tremendously.”
Despite their struggles on offense, Neelyville took advantage of its own swarming defense for a hard-earned 18-14 lead at halftime.
The second half began with a 5-0 Neelyville run to open a 23-14 lead. Defenses kept both team’s offenses frustrated for most of the period.
Neelyville’s Casen Stephens had been held scoreless until a made free throw followed by a steal and a layup sparked the Tigers offense to life with 1:20 remaining in the third. The Tigers outscored the Royals 14-6 to end the period leading 32-20.
Stephens scored four points to start the fourth, leading Neelyville on a 6-2 run before a timeout was called at 4:20 with the Tigers leading 38-22.
The Tigers controlled the ball on offense and were able to score when they needed to, all while holding the Royals to just six points in the fourth quarter to 12 of their own.
“We knew we didn’t want to be a close game if we could help it,” Burdin said. “They are very well coached and they play very hard, so we wanted to do our best to try to get any advantage that we could.”
Grant Hale led Neelyville with a game-high 14 points. Stephens ended the game with nine points, all coming in the second half.
Jake Hester was the Royals leading scorer with 12 points.
Next up for Neelyville is the OFC Tournament championship game against the Greenville Bears at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Libla Family Sports Complex in Poplar Bluff.
Twin Rivers will play Clearwater Thursday night for third place at Doniphan.