The Lady Golden Tigers take on Fairview.

By Brannon King for the FCT

The Russellville Lady Golden Tigers traveled to Moulton Monday night to take on the Fairview Lady Aggies in what turned out to be the final game of the season.  Fairview defeated Russellville 56-30 in the first game of the Class 5A Area 14 tournament.

The Lady Aggies jumped out to a big first quarter lead and never looked back. Fairview led 18-6 at the end of the opening period before Russellville played right with the Lady Aggies in the second quarter, with both teams scoring 14 points apiece.

The Lady Golden Tigers struggled in both the third and fourth quarters, only scoring 10 points in the entire second half.

Kallie Allen led Russellville in scoring with 13 points. She was followed by Patricia Borden (8), Carley Seal (5), Aleshia Phillips (2) and Madison Murray (2).

Even though the game was the last for Russellville’s seniors, first-year head coach Brooke Long got big contributions from many young players who will be back for the Lady Golden Tigers next season.

“We’ve come a long way as far as building our coach and player relationships,” Long said after the game. “Kids don’t just automatically trust somebody that they don’t know, so it takes a long time to get kids to really believe in what you say and do what you ask all the time. I think a lot of our kids from the time I got here until now have learned a lot.  I’ve learned a lot, and I think we’ve grown as people, and I can definitely see that we grew as the season went on.”

The future is bright for this group of Lady Golden Tigers, both for the seniors and for those who will return to the basketball court next season.