Semoball

East Carter boys, Doniphan girls top OFC brackets

East Carter's Preston Turner drives the paint while Greenville's Easton Evans guards him during the game on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, in Ellsinore, Mo. The Redbirds earned the top seed in the OFC Tournament, which starts Monday in Broseley, Mo.
DAR FILE/Robert Augsdorfer

The stage is set for the 2022 Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament as the seedings were decided Wednesday morning for the boys and the girls brackets.

The tournament is set to tip off Saturday with the first round at Twin Rivers High School, which will also host the semifinals and third place games later in the week.

Championship games will be held at the Libla Family Sports Complex on the campus of Three Rivers College.

Both top seeds claimed the regular season title by sweeping their conference opponents with East Carter earning a first-round bye in the boys bracket while Doniphan is the top seed on the girls side.

“I’m excited that we’re the one seed,” Doniphan girls coach Adam Epps said. “We need to start playing better in the next couple of games, we haven’t been playing that well, got into foul trouble a bit, but it should be a good tournament all around. All six teams are very competitive and it should be as competitive as an OFC Tournament should be.”

Doniphan is coming off of a 58-37 non-conference loss at Ellington on Tuesday, the Donettes’ second loss of the season. It snapped a 16-game winning streak that dated back to Nov. 30.

“We’re going to see how good our leadership is in the OFC Tournament,” Epps said. “We expected to play better against Ellington and I was disappointed in our effort. We’re just as good as them and we didn’t really show it. Kaylee King got us good in that game and it’s hard to guard one of the best players in Southeast Missouri. But a tough loss like that to a great team gets us ready for this tournament and the ultimate goal which is to make a championship run in the postseason.”

Doniphan (17-2) is the defending tournament champions after beating Neelyville 42-39 in the final last year, ending a 12-year stranglehold by the Tigers.

“We like that we’re the team with the target on our backs and just about everyone wants us to lose,” Epps said. “It’s definitely easier to be the underdog when no one expects you to do anything, but we’ve answered the bell every time and hit our shot. The great thing about the OFC Tournament is that it’s towards the end of the regular season and it really gets you ready for the district tournament.”

Naylor (11-9) holds the second seed going 4-1 in conference play, also earning a first-round bye, followed by East Carter (10-7) with the third seed, fourth-seeded Neelyville (7-12), fifth-seeded Greenville (8-10) and host Twin Rivers (8-10).

“We’ve definitely set goals this year,” East Carter coach Angela Rodgers said. “I’ve been here four years and we’ve lost in the first round before, but this year we’re trying to climb the ladder in the tournament. We’ve lost a couple games to Doniphan and Naylor and we definitely owe them one so we are ready to go.”

Neelyville and Greenville will start the girls tournament at 8 p.m. Monday with East Carter and Twin Rivers playing at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Doniphan will play the Neelyville-Greenville winner at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday followed at 8 p.m. with Naylor facing the East Carter-Twin Rivers winner. The third place game will played at 6 p.m. Saturday at Twin Rivers with the championship at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Three Rivers College.

East Carter earned the top seed on the boys side with an undefeated conference mark capped off with a dramatic 70-68 win Tuesday over Greenville.

“This is the first time in a long time that we get to go into the OFC Tournament as the one seed,” East Carter boys coach Jordan Penn said. “We know we have the target on our backs. Greenville was right there with us (Tuesday), we’ve played Doniphan twice and they were both competitive games. We’ve got to fix some things because we know some guys are gunning for us. We’ve got to come in ready to work over the next few days in practice to improve and get an OFC championship.”

The Redbirds last won the title in 2020 and lost to Doniphan 58-56 last year in the final.

East Carter (14-5) won at Doniphan 78-63 on Dec. 9 and 57-46 a week later at Clarkton.

Doniphan (12-7) is in the second seed while Greenville (14-5) sits in third after losing by three to the Dons on Dec. 7. Neelyville (8-11) is in the fourth spot followed by Twin Rivers (5-15), Clearwater (4-11) and Naylor (7-11).

Greenville and Clearwater will start the boys tournament at 6:30 p.m. Monday with Neelyvillle and Twin Rivers playing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday followed at 8:30 with Doniphan facing Naylor.

East Carter will face the winner between Neelyville and Twin Rivers at 6:30 p.m. Thursday with the second semifinal to follow. The third place game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Twin Rivers with the championship at 8 p.m. Friday at Three Rivers College.

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