NEELYVILLE -- Twin Rivers coach Kelly Westerfield has told her team that the gameplan against them is to get them to take a quick shot and then don't give up a rebound.
The Royals, a team that prefers to play fast and run, fell into exactly that gameplan with the Ozark Foothills Conference regular season title on the line.
Neelyville dominated from the opening tip and won 73-26 to improve to 6-0 in conference play.
Neelyville (11-1) hasn't lost a conference game since January 2015 and has now won 31 in a row. The Lady Tigers have also won 10 straight OFC tournaments, with this year's tourney starting Saturday, and don't appear to be slowing down.
"I think everybody is picking it up, everybody is filling in spots. If somebody isn't shooting well, somebody else picks it up. Everybody is rotating well on defense and talking, so it is it working well," Neelyville coach Becky Hale said.
The Lady Tigers foreshadowed the rest of the game with a pair of third-try putbacks by Jentri Worley, who led Neelyville with 20 points, for their first two buckets.
It was part of a 14-1 run to open the game and the Lady Tigers were up 19-5 at the end of the first quarter.
Of those 19 points, 10 were second-chance points.
"It helps us relax, we know we have people down there rebounding, so shots start falling. We also know if it isn't going to go in we are going to have at least another chance," Hale said.
Westerfield called a pair of timeouts in the first four minutes, but they changed little.
"Most of the time a quick timeout with them will work. It will pull them together and get them to come back a little harder," Westerfield said. "The pressure was just a little too intense for them, I think. We'll have a chance to see them again if we take care of business."
Neelyville continued to press and increased its lead to 32 points by halftime and 49, its largest lead of the game, going into a running clock fourth quarter.
"We've been here before with them, just not quite this bad," Westerfield said. "I've always said, if you want to show up and play hard from the beginning you can make a ballgame of it, and if you want to be weak then they'll run over you and the pressure will get more intense."
To go with Worley's 20 points, Mackenzie Hobbs, J'Kayla Fowler and Autumn Dodd all finished with 11.
Twin Rivers (12-8, 5-1 OFC) never scored 10 points in any quarter and was held to two field goals in each of the first three quarters. Team leading scorer and recent Three Rivers signee Katelyn South was held to seven points and had just two going into the fourth quarter.
"All of them can score, they are a good team," Hale said. "We had to know where (South) was at on the floor. But mostly, just making them rush that shot and then not letting them get another one."
Neelyville beat Twin Rivers by 25 points in the Lady Royals Classic. Hale attributed the larger margin to better defense.
"Our defensive intensity has picked up and we were able to cause some turnovers," she said.
Westerfield hoped the Royals will get one more crack at them in the OFC tournament.
"We were not physical enough," Westerfield said. "We would move to a spot where coach says we should be and then we would just stand there. We didn't keep being physical. We have got to continue to play until it is in our possession. We can't leave it up to chance."