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Dons win opener at Clarkton Christmas Tournament
CLARKTON — The Doniphan Dons defeated the Clarkton Reindeer 72-56 on the opening night of the Clarkton Christmas Tournament on Tuesday.
The Dons overcame a cold shooting effort in the first half to forge a strong lead in the middle of the third quarter, finally pulling away from a Clarkton team that played much better than its winless record would have shown.
“Our shots weren’t falling, but we can always rely on our defense, and I don’t think we were getting after in the first half,” said Doniphan head coach Hunter Dilbeck. “If we’re not scoring, we’ve got to stop the other team from scoring, and I don’t think in the first half we were doing that as well as we could have.”
Both teams struggled to find the net in the opening quarter, with turnovers and missed shots leading to a 9-9 tie at the end of the period.
After a rough couple of minutes in the second quarter, both teams began to find the mark more consistently, trading off one-point leads for much of the period.
Clarkton led 23-21 with 2:30 remaining in the half, but Doniphan used a five-point run off turnovers and rebounds to take a 26-23 lead with 1:40 left in the second.
The Reindeer pulled within one point near the end of the period, but Emmitt Jones and Corey Hagood combined on back-to-back layups to give the Dons a 30-27 lead at halftime.
The score languished at 33-31 in favor of Doniphan more than three minutes into the third quarter until Dons’ junior Tyler Lowery hit a 3-pointer, followed by two free throws each by senior Lane Allen and sophomore Waylon Kelly to stretch their lead to nine points with four minutes left in the period.
“We have plenty of shooters on the team, and I know that they’re going to hit if they keep shooting, but I try to emphasize to get good shots,” Dilbeck said. “Sometimes we get into this mode where we want to throw the first thing we touch instead of getting a good look, so I tried to emphasize to keep attacking that.”
Kelly was the spark for the Dons’ offense in the third, combining steals with drawing fouls and hitting free throws to lead Doniphan to a 56-40 advantage going into the final quarter.
“He was the difference maker,” Dilbeck said of Kelly. “He came in and did exactly what we wanted. He plays hard and gets after it defensively, and he makes things happen. I was really impressed with him today.”
Clarkton’s Caleb Redden showed a strong performance under the basket during the fourth quarter, scoring 12 points, but Doniphan found the shooting touch that was missing in the first half, and the Dons extended their lead to 70-50 with 2:44 left in the game.
Hagood was Doniphan’s leading scorer with 16 points, while Kelly scored 15, and Jones and Lowery each scored 14.
Clarkton’s Redden led all scorers with a game-high 26 points.
Doniphan’s record improved to 4-2, while Clarkton fell to 0-6.
The Dons will play East Carter for the second time in less than a week in the second round of the tournament on Thursday night.
“I know they’re going to come ready to play, so we’ve got to work a little bit harder than what we ever have before if we want to try to get by and play for a championship,” Dilbeck said.
In other first-round action on Tuesday, the Portageville Bulldogs won the opening game of the tournament with a 57-56 win over the Greenville Bears thanks to a 3-pointer from Antonio Hickenbottom with 4.4 seconds left in the game.
The Bears missed their own last-second shot as they fell short in a game which they trailed at halftime, but led through most of the fourth quarter. Greenville missed several key free throws in the last minute that might have secured the win.
The Bulldogs’ leading scorer was Xayvion Bogun, who put in a game-high 24 points. The Bears were led by Cooper Sturgeon, who scored 22 points.
Portageville improved their record to 2-3, while Greenville slipped to 5-3.
The second game wasn’t anywhere nearly as dramatic, as the East Carter Redbirds defeated the North Pemiscot Mustangs 96-20.
East Carter started the game with an 11-0 run in the first two minutes, and the Redbirds ran away with the game from that point, leading at the half 62-8.
The Redbirds’ Bryce Stahl led all scorers with 26 points.
The Mustangs’ leading scorer was Jacalveyoung Whitaker with 12 points.
East Carter improved to 5-2 this season, while North Pemiscot remained winless at 0-5.