Donettes 'three-peat' at LRCC

BROSELEY — For the third time in as many years, Doniphan stood alone atop the competition at the 2023 Lady Royals Christmas Classic.

The Donettes rode the momentum of a strong second quarter to a 54-43 victory over East Carter and hoisted the LRCC championship trophy for the third consecutive season on Saturday at Twin Rivers High School.

Doniphan coach Adam Epps was pleased with the way his team competed throughout the tournament despite battling the flu the week prior.

"At the start of the tournament, we were getting over a pretty bad flu bug and we were playing without a couple of our main players for those first couple of games," Epps said. "Then you're working on trying to get your legs back. When you're the one seed, or when you've won it a couple of years, everybody's got you circled. We're going to get everybody's best shot every time we play them. We didn't play our greatest game in the semifinals, but they rebounded well. We were hungry to get to play again and to play better than we played in that semifinal game."

The Redbirds didn't make it easy on Doniphan, jumping out to an early lead before the Donettes figured things out in the second quarter. After trailing by to start the period, Doniphan outscored East Carter 20-5 and took a 34-23 lead into halftime.

Epps chalked the Donettes' second-quarter rally up to their conditioning.

"We're in pretty good shape," Epps said. "A lot of teams come out with a lot of energy early, but it's hard to maintain that for four quarters if we're able to play at the pace that we want to play. Our defensive energy was able to get us into that gear so we could get up and down.

"They started making shots at the beginning. They've got a couple of really good players and they'll be a hard team to handle when they get everybody healthy. But it was our energy and our tempo that just kind of took over starting in that second quarter."

Doniphan was paced by 6-foot-1 senior Kenzie Redus who scored a game-high 18 points.

"This is our third championship game, and Kinsey Regis has been a great big part of all three of those," Epps said. "She's been here before, she helps us keep our composure and she helps me keep my composure. I was getting a little upset in the Neelyville (semifinal) game and she kind of came by and said, 'Hey, we need you. I was like, 'Oh, I better start doing my job.' "

While Redus led the way, the young Donettes spread the love around offensively with freshmen Kinsey Killian and Carsyn Hagood adding nine and eight points, respectively.

"We've got a really special group of younger kids that have played a lot of games, and the more games they play, the less rattled that they get," Epps said. "They've come through so far every time I've gone to them. They make our defensive energy and our tempo really, really good, and we're just going to keep going to them."

The Redbirds were led by senior Dylan Price's 17-point performance. She was joined in double figures by her 6-foot-2 classmate Breanna Dohleman who added 16.

With the victory, Doniphan remains undefeated on the season with a 10-0 record while East Carter picks up its first loss to fall to 8-1. The two teams will meet again in two weeks when the Redbirds travel to Doniphan on Tuesday, Jan. 8.