By Staff
Kim West
Franklin County Times
LEIGHTON – The Russellville and Phil Campbell varsity boys put on a show during the first round of the TimesDaily Classic Monday afternoon.
The two teams combined for 24 3-pointers, including seven by Russellville's Cory Trapp and four by Phil Campbell's Caleb Thompson.
The Golden Tigers also landed two crowd-pleasing dunks – Terence Smith came up with a steal and Jermaine Bates finished the two-handed slam in the closing seconds of the first half, and Micah McCulloch one-handed a pass from Mason Willis with 3:58 remaining in the game.
Russellville, one of the favorites to win the 16-team tournament, trailed Phil Campbell 12-11 midway through the first quarter when Tanner Maddox drilled a 3-pointer.
But the Golden Tigers responded with a 10-0 run to lead 22-13 at the end of the quarter. During that span, Bates scored on a pretty spin move and a drive to the basket, and Trapp nailed a trey.
Phil Campbell narrowed the lead to six points twice during the second quarter as Thompson had back-to-back lay-ups, but Trapp countered with two straight 3-pointers.
Russellville started an 11-2 run with four minutes left in the quarter and led 47-27 at halftime.
Russellville led by as many 23 points in the third quarter. Thompson hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 50-34 with 5:58 remaining, but the Bobcats couldn't stop the Golden Tigers' perimeter shooting as Trapp hit two more 3-pointers and Siran Winston opened the quarter with a trey.
Despite five 3-pointers by Phil Campbell, Russellville outscored the Bobcats 20-10 in the final quarter and used a 17-9 run midway through the quarter to put the game away.
During the run, Russellville came away with five steals thanks to their full-court pressure and Bates scored four points and Trapp assisted on lay-ups by Smith and Jordan Hammond.
Four starters finished in double figures for Russellville, which had 10 different players score.
Trapp led the Golden Tigers with a game-high 23 points, while Winston added 18. Bates and Smith each finished with 15 points apiece, and Hammond had seven.
Mark Davis (3), Yovanni Ramirez (2), McCulloch (2), Willis (2) and Chase Johnson also scored for Russellville.
Thompson finished with a team-high 21 points for Phil Campbell, while Maddox added 17 points.
Jonathan Dill and Lawrence Butts scored seven points apiece, and Pablo Santiago, Adam Mitchell (3), Tate Canida (3) and Korey Pounders (2) also scored for the Bobcats.
Russellville advanced to play Colbert Heights, who upset Florence, and improved to 6-0, while Phil Campbell dropped to 5-9.