Donettes ride defense to three-peat as OFC tourney champs

The Doniphan Donettes made sure that the third time was a charm.

After two pretty intense encounters with Ozark Foothills Conference rival Neelyville earlier this season, the Donettes had to dance once more with the Lady Tigers Friday night.

This time it was for the OFC Tournament title at the Libla Family Sports Complex at Three Rivers College and No. 1 seed Doniphan took all the drama out of the contest with its defense early and cruised to a surprising 59-29 win over the No. 3 Lady Tigers.

Doniphan (20-1) won another tournament title behind the play of McKenna Monaghan (14 points), Kenzie Redus (10) and Gracen Kirby (nine).

“We really came out and set the tone defensively,” Doniphan head coach Adam Epps said. “We wanted to run tonight and for the most part, I thought we had a really good job.”

The Lady Tigers (14-6) were paced by Jade Crosswhite with 16 points.

Doniphan knew it had to take control early and that the Donettes did.

“We knew we had to come out strong and if we didn’t we knew it would be a tough game,” Monaghan said. “ It’s good to see the hard work is paying off. We want the ball in the hole as much as possible.”

Doniphan came out charged up and took a 10-0 lead out of the gate behind a combination of effective, full court pressure and inside-outside makes.

However, the Lady Tigers finally found their footing and were able to creep back into the contest to trail 12-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Then Doniphan’s defense took over in the second quarter as it forced a number of Neelyville turnovers and forced shots and the Donettes paid themselves back by converting on the other end,

Doniphan blew out to a 20-6 lead with 3:39 before halftime.

The Donettes took a comfy 25-10 advantage into the break.

Doniphan set the tone in the first quarter but the game was decided when it responded to Neelyville’s push to get back in the game.

“That’s the difference with this team: When something starts to happen, we’ve got really good leadership that steps up and says that’s not happening,” Epps said. “Then somebody goes up and makes a play. I’m really proud of them. They played really hard and it was nice to see the ball go in for a bunch of different people tonight,”

The game flow remained static as Doniphan came out from the intermission and upped the lead to 31-12 on a triple by Klepzig.

Doniphan pushed out to a 42-22 edge after three quarters and the final eight minutes were a formality.