After battling tooth and nail through four regulation periods, the Russellville High School boys’ basketball team put away Logan County in overtime for a 94-85 win Friday in their second “Clash of the Cats” in less than a week.
Just six days prior, the Panthers beat the Cougars 80-66 in the First Southern National Bank Christmas Classic.
But Friday’s Clash also counted as a district win for Russellville.
It wasn’t easy, however.
The score was tied 53-53 heading into the fourth quarter and Russellville’s Dequan Beard got his team on the board quickly as he stole an inbounds pass and scored.
But Logan County came right back with a 7-0 run that was capped by a bucket from junior Landon Stratton to make the score 60-55 less than a minute into the fourth.
The Cougars extended the lead to six points with 3:21 left when Clint Knight hit a pair of free throws, but Russellville wasn’t about to go away.
The Panthers used a 7-0 run of their own to retake the lead. Tacorian Darden canned a 3-pointer and Darrion Quarles scored off a steal to put RHS up 67-66 with 2:33 left in regulation.
The two teams exchanged baskets and Russellville tied the game up at 73-73 when Quarles scored with 1:18 left.
Russellville then forced a turnover and got the ball back with over a minute left on the clock and held the ball until just 12 seconds left when coach Phil Todd took a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, Darden was able to get off a shot, miss, grab the rebound and take a second shot - but it too was off the mark as the game went into overtime.
The two squads went back and forth for the first two minutes of overtime.
With the score tied 81-81, Christian Naylor drained a 3-pointer for RHS to give them an 84-81 lead with 2:01 left. Stratton had 17 and Ben Wright scored 13.
Russellville (8-7) will be back in action tonight at Greenwood. The Panthers then host Franklin-Simpson on Friday in a District 13 matchup.
Logan County (5-10) rebounded on Saturday night with a 71-70 win over Muhlenberg County. The Cougars face Butler County tonight in a road game and play at Todd County Central on Friday night.
This started a run that saw senior Jordan Kennedy score on back-to-back putbacks to extend the lead to 89-83 with 1:20 left.
From there, Russellville hit 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch to extend the lead and claim the victory.
Russellville was led in scoring by Josh Hampton with 23 points. Jordan Kennedy and Barrett Croslin each scored 17.
Logan County wa paced by Torin Graham, who had a game-high 31 point.
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