Boys

Russellville 80, Lawrence County 69

The Golden Tigers hosted Lawrence County Jan. 11 and got an area win over the Red Devils.

Russellville’s Devin Buckhalter had 20 points in the game, and 14 of them came in the second quarter. He was one of five RHS players to score in double figures, with Lucas McNutt adding 16, Chandler Dyas picking up 14, Colin Bonner adding 12 off the bench and Will Bonner pitching in with 11 points.

Caden Parker, Jeb Bishop and Brooks Scott all scored two points each, and Jamaal Hubbard added a free-throw to the RHS scoring column.

Lawrence County trailed 49-33 at the half but came alive in the third quarter, getting points in the paint. LCHS got to within eight going into the final period, but Russellville outscored the Red Devils by three in the final quarter to pull away and get the big win.

Hamilton 58, Russellville 49

The Class 5A No. 7 RHS team went to Hamilton Monday night to take on the ninth-ranked Aggies with first place in Area 14 on the line.

Hamilton held a slim 12-11 lead after the first period of play, but the Aggies failed to score for the first four minutes of the second quarter. HHS then recovered and took a 26-25 lead into the half of the low-scoring game.

Buckhalter’s layup at the buzzer ending the third quarter gave RHS a 40-39 advantage going into the game’s final period. Russellville (12-6, 3-2) then went cold in the fourth and scored only two field goals in the quarter. Russellville got to within three points of the Aggies when Dyas sank two free-throws with 30 seconds remaining, but the Aggies added four free-throws and a basket down the stretch to finish off the victory and get home-court advantage in the area tournament.

“I told our guys before the game that it would be a game of runs, and really, that’s how it played out,” Russellville head coach Patrick Odom said. “What you try to do there is make the last run, and unfortunately, they were able to make the last run.

“I’m proud of my guys for the effort, and we obviously now know what our route is and what we have to do. We’ll get better, and we’ll be back here with opportunities to win bigger games in February.”

Buckhalter led RHS with 15 points, while McNutt scored 11 and Will Bonner added 10. Dyas scored five, while Parker and Bishop had four points apiece.

Girls

Lawrence County 67, Russellville 49

Lawrence County came to Russellville and took an important area game from the Lady Golden Tigers.

LCHS led 15-9 after one period of play and grew the lead to 15 going into the half. Russellville (4-14, 1-3) battled back in the third quarter and outscored the Lady Red Devils 13-5 before Lawrence County used a 25-14 fourth quarter to pull away and get the win.

Madison Murray led Russellville with 25 points. Krista Sikes and Lexie Glass added five points apiece, while Alivia Clemmons and Autumn Logan scored four each. AJ Taylor had three points for RHS while Fallin Cox scored two and Lauren Hammond had one.

Hamilton 49, Russellville 39

The Lady Aggies were too much for Russellville Monday night in Hamilton during the Class 5A, Area 14 matchup.

Murray had another big game for RHS, leading the team with 18 points. Fifteen of her points came in the game’s second half. Sikes also scored in double figures with 16 points. Glass added three for Russellville, while Chalea Clemmons and Fallin Cox had one point each.

“Our inability to finish plays off by putting the ball in the basket came back to hurt us again tonight,” Russellville head coach Corey Thomaston said. “We did a really good job defensively, held a good team to 49 points and put ourselves in a position to win, but the name of the game is being able to finish plays, and we just weren’t able to do that from the perimeter or in the paint.”