DONIPHAN - Things are starting to get serious in the Ozark Foothills Conference.
With the conference tournament a little more than a week away, Doniphan and Clearwater played a physical game that was worthy of the postseason and occasionally had to be reigned in by the referees.
Doniphan used its superior size to control the boards and pulled away for an 80-56 win.
"The first quarter we were OK for the most part. Whenever we would reach or were a step slow, it turned out to be a foul," Doniphan coach Logan Nutt said. "That is normally what happens. Bad defense will lead to those types of things. It is just a matter of better focus, determination and communication. We were all on the same page and I was glad to see them turn it around in the second half."
Things picked up when Doniphan (6-11, 2-1 OFC) took its first double-digit lead. Klay Barton got a steal and a dunk and hung on the rim as players ran past. He wasn't issued a tech, but the Tigers had words for him as he ran back up the floor.
The Dons were still up by 10 with 3 ½ minutes left in the first half when Michael Owens sank back-to-back buckets. He soon added a pair of free throws and Trent Lippoldt scored to put Doniphan up by 16.
They extended the run to start the second half. Lippoldt opened with a bucket and the Barton followed with a 3. Lippoldt scored again to give Doniphan its first 20-point lead.
A couple minutes later, the Clearwater bench picked up a technical foul. Derek Ferguson made both free throws and Jake Eddington got a putback to put the Dons ahead by 26.
Soon after during a free throw, the refs brought players from both teams together. Things were getting increasingly physical despite Doniphan's comfortable lead.
"It is getting real serious this time of the year. It is conference play, everything is personal. It is just some good competition and it is good to see two young teams battling out there," Nutt said.
Play continued without incident and Doniphan led by at least 19 the rest of the game.
"When a team is up big, sometimes players, especially young high school kids, have times when they drop emotionally," Clearwater coach James Fox said. "We kept emotionally fighting and kept the grit, kept fighting. Whether we down by 20 or 15, we just kept fighting and that is something we have been battling with this team. To see that tonight with these guys was a huge thing for us going forward."
The Dons continued what has been a trend of balanced scoring since Barton broke the team's single-game scoring record and led the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament in scoring. Against Clearwater, he and Lippoldt both had 14 points with Eddington getting 13 and Owens adding 12.
Trey Jackson got into the mix as well in the second half. After not playing in the first half, he sank a pair of 3s in the third quarter and finished with eight points.
The Dons were in the bonus in the first quarter, but avoiding fouling and Clearwater (7-8, 2-2) was 3 for 7 on free throws in the first half and 11 for 19 overall.
"We wanted to improve in certain areas on defense. We wanted to play without fouling defensively. I think we put them in the bonus in the first quarter. Offensively we wanted to move the ball and get more layups. I thought they did that well so I was proud of them," Nutt said.
Ridge Huff led the Tigers with 14 points after making three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Heath Ayers added 13 and Colton Stichford got 10.
"I felt like we could have done better (rebounding)," Fox said. "A few times we got watching from the perimeter. We didn't always attack. Being smaller, we have to always beat them to the rim, make sure we establish our position before they are able to get there and we didn't do that every possession tonight."