Trophy time
By Staff
Russellville beats Muscle Shoals 89-59
Kim West
Franklin County Times
FLORENCE – The Russellville varsity boys left the TimesDaily Classic finals Friday night with their arms full.
Russellville routed Muscle Shoals 89-59 en route to its fifth championship in the 25-year history of the tournament and first since 2001.
The Golden Tigers (9-0) bottled up Muscle Shoals star Ralston Turner and their explosive offense overwhelmed the Trojans with a 19-5 run to open the second quarter.
Russellville's run included back-to-back 3-pointers from Cory Trapp, named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, and Jordan Hammond, a double-clutch shot in the lane by Siran Winston, a fallaway jumper by Terence Smith and four points from Jermaine Bates.
Fittingly, four of the Golden Tigers' starters – Trapp, Winston, Smith and Bates – finished in double figures and were named to the All-Tournament team after the game.
"Coach (Michael Smith) told us to be confident and that we had out-conditioned everyone before the tournament started," Winston said. "We were able to get into transition tonight and run the floor, and that let us get easy lay-ups and long 3's by Cory and Jordan."
Russellville used its pressing defense to keep the ball away from Turner, who scored most of his team-high 14 points when the Golden Tigers' starters were on the bench.
"We played good team defense against Turner," Smith said. "Siran was quick enough to put pressure on him – Turner is their best ball handler so it made sense to match him up against Siran, because he's our best ball defender."
Terence Smith and Trapp led Russellville with 22 points each, while Bates had 18 and Winston added 16.
Hammond and Mark Davis both knocked down two treys to finish with six points apiece. Micah McCulloch scored four points, and Mason Willis had two.
"We can always improve defensively and blocking out on rebounds," Smith said. "But I like that we're not turning the ball over and we're forcing a lot of turnovers. We've had five of our players playing together for the past three years, and you wouldn't be able to find that on most college or NBA teams – our team's chemistry is really good, and that is so important in basketball."
