Royals pull away in fourth to take third

GREENVILLE — The Clearwater Tigers boys basketball team were involved in the two best games of the Ozark Foothills Conference tournament as they first pulled off an opening round upset of No. 3 Neelyville last Saturday.

Fast forward to Thursday’s third-place game against the No. 4 Twin Rivers Royals and the No. 6 Tigers waged another memorable contest — but this time Clearwater didn’t have enough to make it two-for-two.

Led by Colton Hargraves (17 points), Jagger Crismon (14) and Luke Hester (11), the Royals pulled out a 60-47 win to wrap up OFC play at Greenville.

The championship game will take place at 8:30 p.m. Friday when No. 1 Greenville and No. 2 Doniphan tip off at Three Rivers College.

“We struggled shooting mightily again and that’s a concern, but it was a good bounce back win,” Twin Rivers head coach Seth McBroom said regarding Tuesday’s defeat to top-seeded Greenville. “It was a crazy atmosphere and it was physical and rough. I was proud of the kids. They held their composure and stayed calm.

“It was a tough loss Tuesday, but I was proud of our bounce back. Third-place games are sometimes tough to play in and the kids found a way.”

Leading Clearwater were Charles Robbins (23 points) and Keegan Gracey (13).

“Free throws were a big thing for us tonight — we missed a lot — and we turned the ball over a little too much tonight,“ Clearwater head coach Zac Moore said. “We had open shots but we didn’t hit them and they did it.

“We were the six seed and we surprised some people. We moved up two spots so we will build on the little things.“

The Royals took an early lead after a bumpy during the first eight minutes, but a late run by Robbins via a triple and layup gave the Tigers a 10-9 lead with two minutes left.

Clearwater ultimately trailed 13-12 heading into the second quarter.

Twin Rivers got out to a six-point edge early in the quarter but the Tigers weren’t going anywhere.

At 3:24, two free throws by Robbins knotted things back up at 22-apiece.

Then a steal, drive down court and layup by Landon Towe gave Clearwater a 26-24 lead a minute later.

The Royals found a way back into the lead, 29-28, heading into halftime.

The teams continued to wage battle out of the break as Twin Rivers crept out to a 38-33 edge midway through the third quarter.

The Royals led by as many as six, but had to watch as Clearwater snuck back to within 42-41 heading into the final quarter.

Dobbins hit a 3-pointer early on in the fourth to push the Tigers back up, 44-42.

However, the Royals responded with a 7-0 run capped off by a Hunter Huddleston layup to go ahead 49-44.

After a timeout, Twin Rivers moved up seven on two Crismon free throws and then the Royals milked the clock looking to put the win on ice.