Russellville boys go 1-1 in Times Daily Classic, winning over Wilson 59-46
The Russellville varsity boys basketball team participated in the 2021 Times Daily Classic, and the Golden Tigers finished with a 1-1 record in the tournament, held at Florence High School’s Coffee Gym.
RHS opened the tourney with a 59-46 win over the Wilson Warriors Dec. 17 but were eliminated the following evening after a 63-49 loss to the Brooks Lions in the quarterfinals.
Russellville jumped out to a 15-10 lead versus Wilson and outscored the Warriors by a 15-9 total to take a 30-19 advantage into the halftime break.
WHS answered with a strong third period, outscoring the Golden Tigers 18-10 to pull within three points going into the fourth.
Russellville outscored the opponent 19-9 in the final quarter to seal the victory and advance.
Senior Eli Gipson led Russellville in scoring with 22 points. Amir Williams added 16 points, Malachi Duncan scored eight, Conner Warhurst had five, and Ashton Boyd and Boots McCulloch added four points each.
In the next game, against the talented Brooks squad, Russellville trailed 16-13 at the end of the first quarter. The Golden Tigers got things going their way in the second period, outscoring the Lions by a 17-13 tally to take a 30-29 lead into the half.
Brooks then used a 21-10 third quarter and a 13-9 fourth to get the win.
Russellville (5-4) got scoring from seven different players during the contest. Gipson led the team with 20, and Nathan Brockway also scored in double figures with 10.
“This time of the year, basketball is crazy,” said Russellville head coach Patrick Odom. “I thought we played a lot better tonight than we did last night. Externally, people always look at wins and losses. Offensively, we just missed a lot of shots in the second half.
“I thought we played tough, and I thought we defended them well. We’ve just got to get a little better offensively to be able to keep up.
“That one run in the third quarter becomes the difference because we were not able to match baskets.”
Next up for Russellville will be the Bracy Invitational, hosted by Deshler High School. That event is scheduled to begin Dec. 27.
