BROSELEY -- The Royals simultaneously managed foul trouble with their leading scorer while shutting down Doniphan's leading scorer.
Twin Rivers' Hayden Thomas spent about seven minutes of the second half on the bench with foul trouble, but the offense continued. Doniphan's Klay Barton went without a field goal for nearly the entire second half, and Twin Rivers pulled away for a 57-48 win Friday.
"I think they just knew they had to take care of it," Twin Rivers coach Seth McBroom said. "We were just doing a good job of taking care of the ball, finding the gaps and making the proper play."
Thomas finished with 14 points, but had just two in the second half. He picked up his third foul on a technical with just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter. Following a fast break, Thomas leapt for an attempted block and hung on the rim with traffic flowing around him, and was issued the technical. He spent the rest of the third quarter on the bench.
At the time, the Royals (7-6, 2-0 OFC) were up by four.
"We had a group out there that was on a run at that time in the third. We thought if we could get him to the fourth with only three fouls, then we could give him his freedoms," McBroom said.
Barton stepped to the line and made both free throws, but they were his only points of the second half until there was 2 minutes and 30 seconds left in the game. He didn't hit his first and only field goal of the second half until the final 90 seconds with the Dons (5-10, 1-1) down by 11.
The Royals were still ahead by four entering the fourth quarter, then Aaron Mittlestadt and Thomas scored to double the lead. Thomas, though, was soon called for a charge and went back to the bench.
Zach Hargraves later added a free throw with 2:35 on the clock to give the Royals their first double-digit lead, and Thomas re-entered the game.
"Mentally we are not extremely tough. We have three seniors and a few other guys who are getting good minutes who are young, and we are still learning how to be mentally tough," Doniphan coach Logan Nutt said. "We've been improving, we've been taking steps in the right direction. I think we are headed to being pretty dang tough on a nightly basis pretty soon."
He avoided picking up his fifth foul and Doniphan looked for Barton and some 3-pointers down the stretch, but the Dons never got within seven points in the closing possessions.
"Whenever we get down our spirits get down a little bit and we tend to start reaching instead of playing solid defense. We start trying to get five points shots instead of the best shot," Nutt said. "They came out and punched us in the nose ... being a little bit tougher than us, they were getting a little more loose balls and getting offensive boards."
Jamie Robards had a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter and four total in leading Twin Rivers with 15 points. Hargraves added 13.
"We hit some 3s early and in the third quarter that I think gave us some momentum and let us know that maybe we could win the game," McBroom said.
Barton led all scorers with 26 points, but had a hard time finding space after heating up in the second quarter.
With Doniphan ahead by two early in the second, Barton sank one 3, then swished a step-back 3, and on the next possession he buried a pull-up 3 in transition for nine points in under a minute.
Twin Rivers called a timeout to address the problem.
"He's an excellent player. I hope (a college) is looking at him," McBroom said. "We tried to key on him, try to just get it out of his hands when we could and make him earn every basket."
Barton didn't make another field goal for 20 minutes. Doniphan led 28-20 after Barton sank that third straight 3. Twin Rivers held Doniphan to 20 points the rest of the game.
"We just had to concentrate on Barton, obviously, and we had to concentrate on help side on (Trent) Lippoldt, and really Eddington and (Michael) Owens, too," McBroom said. They are fine players as well. We had to make sure we were in the right position and try to close out."