OFC Tournament: Lady Tigers roll past Twin Rivers for third place

DONIPHAN — The Neelyville Lady Tigers claimed third place in the Ozark Foothills Conference TournamentThursday night with a dominating 63-20 win over the Twin Rivers Lady Royals at Wright Gymnasium.

“We played great team defense and rebounded the ball well,” said Lady Tigers head coach Becky Hale.

Layni Dobbins led Neelyville with a game-high 17 points, while teammate Parker Ernst added 15.

“I thought we were looking for each other on offense tonight and was able to get a good win,” Hale said.

Third-seeded Neelyville (14-10) led from the outset, opening an 18-6 lead in the first quarter. The Lady Tigers outscored fourth-seeded Twin Rivers (11-11) 14-2 in the second period to take a commanding 32-8 lead at halftime.

Twin Rivers was unable to connect on a field goal in the first half, as all eight of the Lady Royals’ points came from free throws.

The Lady Royals’ leading scorer was Reese Crismon with seven points.

Neelyville widened its lead in the third quarter, outscoring Twin Rivers 23-9 for a 55-17 lead at the end of the period.

The fourth quarter ran with a continuous clock, which reduced the scoring advantage to 8-3 in favor of the Lady Tigers during the final period.

__BOYS__

__Clearwater 85, Twin Rivers 74__

In the boys’ third-place game, the fourth-seeded Tigers built up 21-point lead, then held off a late, furious charge by the Royals.

Clearwater’s Charles Robbins was the difference-maker in the game, scoring a game-high 52 points that sealed the victory for the Tigers, who advanced their season record to 10-14.

Twin Rivers’ leading scorers were Jake Hester with 20 points and Carter Williams with 17, most of which came in the fourth quarter as the Royals made a furious fourth-quarter comeback attempt.

Robbins had 22 points in the first half alone to stake Clearwater to a ten-point lead at the half, 35-25.

The Tigers outscored the Royals 27-16 in the third quarter, which ended with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give Clearwater a 62-41 lead going into the fourth.

However, the Royals never gave up, riding a wave of 3-pointers, steals, and foul shots to cut their deficit down to 75-72 with a minute left to play.

But, back-to-back turnovers combined with fouls on Robbins, dashed the Royals’ hopes, and Clearwater was able to extend its final lead to 11 points and claim the third-place trophy.