Donettes sprint past Neelyville to win River City Classic

Doniphan’s Sarah Owen (23) shoots in traffic as she is guarded by Neelyville defenders Haylyn Crockett (left) and Parker Ernst during Saturday’s River City Classic championship game at Wright Gymnasium in Doniphan.

DAR/Mike Buhler

DONIPHAN — Sometimes a fast start is all a team needs to get the win.

That was true Saturday in the championship game of the inaugural River City Classic, as the Doniphan Donettes turned a fast start into a 64-36 win over the Neelyville Lady Tigers in girls basketball action at Wright Gymnasium.

“We worked really hard to put the tournament on,” Doniphan coach Adam Epps said afterwards. “I feel like we got a pretty solid field out here. Neelyville is a very physical team — and that's not the first time we're going to have to play them. They'll be back. (But) I'm proud of the girls.”

Doniphan opened the game on a 14-2 run which was capped by a 3-pointer from Carsyn Hagood with 3:25 left in the first quarter.

The Donettes did not let up, as they used a stifling defense to extend their lead to 31-12 on Hagood’s floater with 3:02 left in the first half.

“Sometimes we don't start the game very good, so we really talked about that,” Epps said. “They did a great job tonight. Our leaders made sure everybody was ready to go, and we hit the ground running, attacked the rim well — and then we were able to hit some shots too. So that makes things easier for us — it makes the defense better when (3-pointers) go in.”

Hagood drained another triple just over 30 seconds into the third quarter to push the lead past 20 points (37-16) and two free throws from Sarah Owen with 1:59 left in the third made it 49-22.

The Lady Tigers did not give up, scoring the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to briefly get the Doniphan lead under 20 points when Parker Ernst hit a layup with 3:53 left in the game to make it a 52-34 contest — but was as close as they could get.

“They're a very solid ball club,” Epps said of Neelyville. “They've got two-time all-stater Parker Ernst and she's probably going to be all-state this year. They were district champs last year and (head coach) Becky (Hale) always has them playing right and playing good at the right time. And this is an early win (for us). We know it's early (in the season) and it's not going to be the biggest game we play them this year, but I'm really proud of our girls' effort tonight.”

Owen led the Donettes with 16 points, while Ellie White added 14 and Hagood had 12.

Ernst and Jade Crosswhite paced Neelyville with 10 points apiece.

Doniphan was at Fredericktown on Monday and heads to Mountain View on Thursday to take on Liberty, while the Lady Tigers host Puxico on Thursday.

Notes: Epps picked up his 200th win as a head coach last week in the first round of the tournament against Kelly. … Ernst scored her 1,000th career point in Friday's semifinal win over Alton.