Season ends for RHS girls
Girls
Lawrence County 54, Russellville 26 (Class 5A, Area 16 Tournament)
The 2017-18 basketball season came to an end Monday night at East Limestone High School as the Lawrence County Lady Red Devils defeated the Lady Golden Tigers in the first round of the area tournament.
Russellville (9-20) trailed by a point at the half as the Lady Devils battled early foul trouble, but the Lady Golden Tigers only managed to score five points in the entire second half on their way to defeat. Playing without leading scorer Madison Murray, who missed the end of the season because of knee surgery, proved to be a difficult task on the offensive end of the court for the young RHS team.
Senior Madison Hargett led Russellville with 11 points in her final game in a Russellville uniform. Treyvia Pruitt had seven points for RHS, and she was followed by Autumn Logan with four. AJ Taylor and Lexie Glass pitched in with two points each.
“This program has got a bright future ahead of it,” Russellville head coach Corey Thomaston said after the game. “We’ve got a great foundation in place, and I’m looking forward to continuing working with them. It’s a great group of girls.”
The Russellville team was young and will return all but two players next year. The Golden Tigers will miss the two seniors, Xaria Hollingsworth and Madison Hargett.
“Xaria Hollingsworth has been a great addition to our program this year,” Thomaston said. “And I’m just so thankful that Madison Hargett came back this year. She gave us leadership, scoring and tenacity, and she really set the tone for us a lot of times this year on the defensive end. Those two ladies are going to be successful in what they do moving forward.”
Deshler 72, Russellville 32
Deshler improved to 27-2 on the year with a win over the RHS girls in Tuscumbia. The Tigers only held a four-point lead at the end of the first quarter but then outscored Russellville 28-5 in the second period to pull away for the win.
Fallin Cox led RHS with 11 points. She was followed by Treyvia Pruitt (9), Autumn Logan (4), Lexie Glass (3), Krista Sikes (3) and AJ Taylor (2).
Russellville 50, Sheffield 44
Russellville traveled to Sheffield Feb. 1 and came away with a victory over the Bulldogs. Three RHS players scored in double figures, with Cox leading the way with 12 points. Glass scored 11, and Hargett finished with 10.
RHS trailed by four points at the half but went on to outscore SHS in both the third and fourth quarters for the victory.
Pruitt had eight points for Russellville, and other scorers included Sikes (4), Tiffin (3) and Taylor (2).
Colbert County 60, Russellville 30
The Indians came to Russellville Feb. 2 and took a lopsided win on senior night at RHS. Colbert County used a big second quarter to pull away from the Lady Golden Tigers.
Pruitt led Russellville with 10 points. She was followed by Hargett (6), Cox (6), Glass (4), Taylor (3) and Clemmons (1).
Boys
Deshler 82, Russellville 69
The Tigers swept the season series with Russellville with a win at the dome Jan. 30 at Deshler.
Russellville held a slim 39-36 lead at the half, but Deshler turned up the defense in the second half and pulled away for the win.
Calen Bragwell, Lucas McNutt, Devin Buckhalter and Chandler Dyas all scored 13 points apiece to lead the Russellville attack. Brock Malone had seven points for RHS, while Brooks Scott had six and Caden Parker scored four.
Russellville 81, Sheffield 62
Russellville got back onto the winning track with a dominating performance at Sheffield against the Bulldogs.
RHS jumped out to a 27-11 first quarter advantage and outscored Sheffield in three of the four quarters of play. Nine Golden Tigers got into the scoring column with McNutt leading the way with 25 points. Buckhalter (18), Parker (11), Bragwell (6), Jones (6), Dyas (6), Scott (4), Malone (3) and Danny Hernandez (2) also scored for RHS.
Russellville 71, Colbert County 42
The Golden Tigers (7-16) wrapped up regular season play with a big senior night win over the Indians. The victory takes RHS into area tournament play against Brooks Feb. 6 with some momentum.
Russellville’s five seniors got the start in the game against CCHS and played the first three minutes of the contest as a group. The quintet included Logan Jones, Brock Malone, Houston Kitterman, Calen Bragwell and Danny Hernandez.
“It’s always good to honor those guys,” Russellville head coach Patrick Odom said of the seniors. “Some of those guys have been in the program since I’ve been here. I’m very blessed to be their coach. It’s a great group of kids, and it was great to be able to do something special for them.”
Ten Golden Tigers scored in the game, and Caden Parker led the way with 17 points. He was followed by Buckhalter (12), Malone (11), Dyas (8), McNutt (7), Scott (6), Bragwell (3), Bonner (3), Jones (2) and Hernandez (2).
“The good thing of this week is that we have some momentum going into tournament time,” Odom said.
Tournament results from Feb. 6 were not available as of press time.
