Grins and Bears it: Greenville is OFC champ

When a team finds itself, it can mean a lot of bad news for all challengers.

Even the good ones.

When the season started, Greenville went into Doniphan and blitzed the host Dons.

On Friday night with bigger stakes at play on the homecourt of the Three Rivers Raiders it was Doniphan who proved it was a much better opponent a second time around.

Still, it wasn’t good enough as the No. 1 seeded Bears rallied from a 10-point hole late in the ball game, forced overtime and held on for a 76-71 win over the No. 2 Dons to claim the 2023 Ozark Foothills Conference tournament title.

Easton Evans finished with 28 points — 25 of which came in the second half — while Ty Huffmaster added 23 and Jeb Huff had 11 to lead the Bears.

“(Doniphan) is well coached and they dictated tempo so I feel we were pressing and trying to rush stuff and that’s not our game,” Greenville head coach Nathan Walk said. “We went to man for the first time all year and it was like a hand grenade, Hail Mary. I call it the Spaghetti Theory – throw everything at the wall and see what sticks and it stuck.

“These kids have battled their whole lives and they expect to win.”

Max Owen led the Dons with 26 points while Emmitt Jones added 17.

“I thought we did everything to win that basketball game,” Doniphan head coach Daniel Cagle said. “A few calls don’t go our way, but we can’t control that. I am proud of my guys and they did everything it took to win this basketball game. We switched our defenses at the right time and I can’t think of anything that we did to lose this game. Easton Evans came up big for them in the fourth quarter and he willed them to it.

“I feel good about where we are at – we are starting to play some good basketball for sure. We have four tough games coming up before district and we have a chance to get better before district and that’s our ultimate goal – to win district.”

Doniphan came out cooking like Ja Morant and jumped to an 8-0 lead out of the gate, but the Bears would not take that for long.

Greenville stayed true to itself and kept pounding the rock inside and looking for transition buckets.

A Huffmaster jumper tied the game at 16-all late in the first quarter before Owen and Corey Hagood each drilled triples on both sides of the first quarter buzzer to put the Dons up 22-16.

Huff answered with back-to-back 3s in under a minute and the game was tied at 22-apiece.

Huffmaster gave the Bears their first lead at 24-22, but the Dons, who have really found a groove as of late had no issues responding and immediately went back up 26-24. Doniphan led 34-27 at half as Owen wrapped the first 16 minutes with a two-handed flush off a turnover.

The Dons kept their edge in the same stratosphere, but there were signs that the full court Greenville attack was finding signs of life.

Yet, Doniphan kept a tight grip on the pace of play and held on to a 50-44 lead heading into the final quarter.

Owen was charged with his fourth foul on a drive by Evans and Cagle left him in and the risk paid off.

Owen hit a 3 and a layup soon afterward and Doniphan doubled its advantage from five to 10 points.

The Bears went on a six-point run to answer and pull within four and they trailed by three, 58-55 with 2:50 left as Evans hit a leaner.

Evans, who cooked enough for a small country in the second half after struggling in the first, then scored on an and-one to tie the game at 60.

It went back and forth and Doniphan held a 64-62 lead and had the ball after inducing a Greenville charge with 55 seconds left.

Doniphan led 65-62 as Greenville came down court looking for the tie, but Owen jumped over a few buildings to block a Greenville tie to preserve the lead.

Huffmaster scored on a mid-range leaner to make it 65-64 with 10.7 seconds left.

Doniphan’s JD Burton hit two free throws a second later, but Evans drilled a triple to send the game into overtime at 67-all and send the Greenville faithful into delirious cheer.

“In the fourth quarter we looked like we expected to win – everyone expected Easton to hit that shot, everyone expected everyone to make the right play,” Walk said. “I love them – I love them to death.

“Easton got going and it’s not just him. We pulled big boards in the second half that we didn’t get in the first. Gigantic play after gigantic play we just built and maintained.”

Cagle painted the picture succinctly.

“I told my guys, if that shot rims out, you are OFC champs,” Cagle said.

The Dons took a 71-69 lead, but Huffmaster scored on a follow up and got fouled and hit the and-one to give his guys a 72-71 edge in the last minute.

Evans then hit two free throws with 27.8 to put Greenville up 74-71.

The Dons had two cracks at it to tie but fell short.

“I definitely couldn’t make a shot (in the first half),” Evans said. “My mouth was getting really dry and I was really thirsty and being in the whole game, running around, took it out of me.

“I just kept thinking about what they said and they promised they were going to come out and win and it fueled me to play harder. My guys played their butts off and with only seven guys. Owen (Scherr), who is in the cast – his defense is spectacular – would have guarded Max. We all had to step up in a lot of ways.”