VARSITY BOYS

Lauderdale County 77, Russellville 64

The TimesDaily Classic got underway at Florence High School last week, and LCHS erased an early deficit to defeat Russellville.

The Golden Tigers held a 16-9 lead at the end of the opening period, but Lauderdale County trimmed the RHS advantage to four points at the half. It was the second half when turnovers and hot shooting by the opponent did Russellville in for the game.

“The start of the third quarter was really the critical part of the game,” Russellville head coach Patrick Odom said. “We came out and turned the ball over two or three straight times, and they went on a 10- or 11-point run, and it changed the whole complexion of the game.”

Devin Buckhalter kept his sharp shooting going with 24 points. Also scoring for RHS were Will Bonner (19), Lucas McNutt (14), Colin Bonner (5) and Brooks Scott (2).

Russellville 62, Rogers 61

Lucas McNutt scored 33 points and made a game-winning free throw with three seconds remaining in the contest as Russellville won in the consolation round of the TimesDaily Classic Dec. 18 at Florence High School.

Rogers held a 31-21 lead at the half, but the Golden Tigers (8-3) came out with a sense of urgency in the third quarter, and a McNutt three-pointer during the period gave Russellville a 37-36 lead.

As the fourth quarter neared its end, with the score tied, McNutt went to the line and was able to sink the first of two free throws to give his team the lead in the game’s final seconds. His second try missed, but teammate Buckhalter was on the scene. He grabbed the rebound and was able to dribble out the remaining time on the clock to give RHS the victory.

McNutt scored 13 of Russellville’s 14 fourth-quarter points.

Bonner, Scott and Buckhalter followed McNutt in the scoring column with seven points each. Colin Bonner had six, and Jeb Bishop scored two.

VARSITY GIRLS

Rogers 56, Russellville 25

The Rogers Pirates played host to Russellville in the opening round of the TimesDaily Classic Dec. 17. The ninth-ranked Rogers team jumped out to an early lead and controlled the contest for much of the way.

“We knew coming into tonight that we were facing a really good team,” Russellville head coach Corey Thomaston said. “They play really hard, and I thought at times tonight, we matched their intensity. I thought we were able to really establish a post presence for us early on.

“We can’t trade twos for threes, and that’s what we were trying to do early, and we went away from what we have to do,” he added. “Instead of defending better, I thought we went away from our game plan on the offensive end, and as a result, it just kind of got away from us before we had a chance to regroup.”

Thomaston said he challenged the Lady Golden Tigers to “play with the defensive effort that we are accustomed to playing every night, regardless of the offensive things. I felt like we did some good things on the offensive end tonight, but I really feel like our defense let us down. We’ve got to be better going forward if we’re going to continue to build and to grow this program in the right direction.”

Fallin Cox led RHS with six points. She was followed by Madison Murray (5), Autumn Logan (5), Chalea Clemmons (4), Alivia Clemmons (3), Krista Sikes (1) and Lexie Glass (1).

Brooks 45, Russellville 28

In the consolation round of the TimesDaily Classic at Rogers, Russellville struggled offensively against the Brooks Lady Lions.

RHS (4-10) scored two points in the first quarter and trailed 19-11 at the half. The Lady Golden Tigers were outscored 19-9 in the game’s final period.

Sikes scored nine points for Russellville. Chalea Clemmons scored seven, and Alivia Clemmons added six. Murray pitched in with four, and Logan had two.