Russellville boys grab wins, girls suffer losses
Russellville 78, Wilson 33
The Russellville Golden Tigers got scoring from every member of the team and cruised to a home win over the Wilson Warriors Jan. 15.
RHS got off to a quick start and led 27-8 at the end of the first quarter. The Golden Tigers played well on offense and defense to take a 52-16 advantage into the half and went on to hold the Warriors to only seven fourth-quarter points.
Will Bonner led Russellville in scoring with 12 points. Chandler Dyas had 11, while Caden Parker and Brooks Scott scored 10 apiece. Lucas McNutt and Jeb Bishop had nine points each, while Bryant Hubbert added eight. Devin Buckhalter and Collin Bonner each had four points, while Jamaal Hubbard had one point.
Russellville 87, West Point 85
Bonner made a clutch shot at the buzzer, and Russellville finished regular-season area play with an exciting win at West Point over the Warriors.
McNutt finished with 26 points, and Buckhalter added 23 to lead RHS in scoring. Bonner added 15 points, and Parker also scored in double figures with 10. Bishop scored six, Collin Bonner had five and Scott had two. Russellville played without Dyas, who missed the game with an ankle injury.
West Point was hot from beyond the arc and made 13 three-pointers in the contest.
With the win, the Russellville boys improved their area record to 4-2 and secured second place in the Class 5A, Area 14 standings. RHS will face West Point again in the first round of the area tournament, which will be held in February at Hamilton.
Russellville 61, Winfield 54
The Golden Tigers used a stingy defense and a big game from Buckhalter to defeat the Winfield Pirates Saturday at RHS.
Russellville held Winfield to 13 first-half points, and Buckhalter scored 25 in the contest to help the seventh-ranked Golden Tigers improved their record to 15-6 on the season.
RHS led by nine after three quarters, but the Pirates closed to within two with 37.5 seconds remaining. Winfield, however, didn’t score again the rest of the way, and Russellville got the win.
“The first half of today’s game was probably the best 16 minutes of defense that we’ve played all year,” Russellville head coach Patrick Odom said. “I’m not sure we were able to sustain that; we probably lost a little energy because of playing back-to-back (days), but it was a great win for our guys.”
McNutt followed Buckhalter in scoring with 13 for RHS. Collin Bonner and Bishop scored six each, while Hubbard had five points. Scott and Will Bonner also got into the scoring column with three points each.
GIRLS
Wilson 58, Russellville 23
The Lady Golden Tigers struggled on the offensive end of the floor and fell to the 10th-ranked team in Class 4A Jan. 15 at RHS.
Russellville managed only one field goal in the game’s first quarter and two in the second. RHS scored one point the fourth quarter to Wilson’s 20 in the period.
Madison Murray led RHS with eight points. Autumn Logan had six, while AJ Taylor added four. Krista Sikes pitched in with three points, while Fallin Cox and Lexie Glass each had one point.
West Point 72, Russellville 34
The ninth-ranked team in Class 5A was too much for Russellville in the regular-season area finale at West Point. With the loss, RHS fell to 4-17 on the season and 1-5 in area play. The two schools will meet again in the first round of the area tournament, which will be held at West Point.
Sikes led Russellville with 13 points. Logan scored six, and Lexie Glass had five, while Madison Murray and Chalea Clemmons had four points each. Makala O’Neal also got into the scoring column with two points.
Winfield 62, Russellville 51
The Lady Golden Tigers put together one of their best performances of the season so far and tested the No. 2 in Class 3A undefeated Lady Pirates Saturday afternoon at RHS.
The Lady Golden Tigers trailed 50-45 with five minutes to go and were behind by six with 2:45 remaining in the contest. RHS had eight three-pointers in the game, and Sikes used sharp-shooting from the outside to connect on four three-point baskets in the first half. She finished with five in the game on the way to leading the team, with 15 points in the contest.
Murray followed Sikes in scoring and had 10 points. Chalea Clemmons (7), Glass (6), Taylor (5), Logan (5) and Alivia Clemmons (3) also scored for Russellville.
