RHS looks to improve as regular season winds down
By Brannon King / For the FCT
The Russellville High School varsity basketball teams are close to wrapping up the 2017-18 regular season, and both squads are still looking for consistency going into the area tournament portion of the schedule.
RHS has games remaining at Deshler and Sheffield before Colbert County comes to town for senior night, and there is time to improve before the start of postseason play.
The Golden Tigers hosted the Haleyville Lions Jan. 27 in games that were rescheduled because of winter weather earlier this season. The Lions took the boys’ game 67-44, and the Lady Golden Tigers dropped to 8-17 for the year with a 50-43 defeat.
In the boys’ game, Haleyville outscored Russellville (5-15) in three of the four quarters of play. Russellville had more points in the fourth period, but by then, the game was well out of reach. HHS led 35-23 at the half and held a 27-point advantage going into the final quarter.
Lucas McNutt led Russellville with 12 points. Devin Buckhalter and Chandler Dyas had 10 points each for RHS. They were followed by Caden Parker with six and Logan Jones with three. Calen Bragwell scored a basket for Russellville, and Brooks Scott made a free-throw.
“They are a 4A basketball team that has the pieces and parts to really make a run,” Russellville head coach Patrick Odom said of Haleyville. “They give you so many mismatches and challenges.
“For us, I think we shot the ball probably at a 20 percent rate tonight. We’re just not going to beat good people shooting the ball that poorly,” Odom said. “I think we only had nine or 10 turnovers in the game, so it wasn’t a lack of looks. It’s a make-or-miss game sometimes, and we have to make shots, and we didn’t do that tonight. Sometimes, the game is cruel that way.
“I told our guys that sometimes you just burn the game film and move on, and that’s what we’re going to do. Next week is a big week for us heading into the area tournament.”
The Class 5A, Area 16 tournament for the boys will be held at Brooks. The Golden Tigers will take on the currently-undefeated Brooks Lions Feb. 6 in a contest scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. The girls will travel to East Limestone for the area tourney and will face Lawrence County Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m.
In the girls’ game against Haleyville, the Russellville team had to play without scoring leader Madison Murray. Murray missed the game and will be out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
To make things more difficult, RHS played the Lady Lions with only seven players dressed out for the game. A previous commitment to a softball camp at Mississippi State caused one starter to miss the rescheduled game, and another contributor has withdrawn from school at RHS. Treyvia Pruitt missed practice all week with strep throat but was able to play after having to miss the previous game.
Russellville led at the half against Haleyville by a point, but the second half went the way of the Lady Lions. Haleyville outscored RHS 21-9 in the third quarter, and then, early in the fourth period, the second of two players that fouled out for Russellville left the game, leaving the Lady Golden Tigers with five available players to finish the contest.
RHS battled down the stretch and was only outscored 12-8 in the final quarter, but Haleyville took the win.
Madison Hargett had the most points for Russellville with 12. Pruitt also scored in double figures with 10. Logan (8), Sikes (6), Cox (4) and Glass (3) also scored for RHS.
“The No. 1 thing I’m looking for from our team is to grow and to continue to improve,” said Russellville head coach Corey Thomaston. “We’re going to add a couple of things hopefully this coming week that we can look to attack with in the area tournament.”
