After playing one of their worst halves of the season, the Russellville Panthers mounted a magnificent comeback in the 4thRegion
semifinals Monday night.
They came back from a 33-13 deficit midway through the third quarter to tie the score against Bowling Green at 41-41 with 2:04 left in the game.
They had outscored the Purples 28-8 over an 8-minute span.
BGH, however, shut the Panthers down the remainder of the game for a 44-41 Purples win.
Russellville had the ball 25 of the final 26 seconds of the game, calling a timeout with 0:10. A potential tying 3-pointer put up by D.J. Quarles
came off the front of the rim with a little over a second left, and BGH rebounded.
Kevin Temple, who got a rare start after being named player of the game in Saturday’s win over Allen County-Scottsville, led the Panthers with 13
points. Tevin Barksdale topped BGH and the game with 17.
The Purples advanced to the finals Tuesday 6 p.m. against Franklin-Simpson, which beat Russell County 60-54 in Monday’s second game.
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Allen County-Scottsville Coach Scott Shelton resigned Monday. AC-S stat man Don Meador told the LIJ Monday: “Scott Shelton announced today
that he will not be back next year. It seems that his wife has been accepted to dental school in Connecticut, so they will be moving this summer to the
Northeast.”
The Sheltons are also expecting their first child soon.
Shelton had coached the Patriots for four seasons after serving as an assistant to D.G. Sherrill, who had moved on to Bowling Green. Now Sherrill,
whose team survived a 3-overtime win against Cumberland County and a 3-point nailbiter over RHS, will coach against Franklin-Simpson in the
championship game at Diddle Arena.
Scott Shelton finished with an 81-38 record at his alma mater, a sparkling 20-9 average. His Patriots won over 20 games in three of those four
years, all district championship seasons. But his teams went a disappointing 0-3 in regional play.
His mom, the former Annette McReynolds of Lewisburg, was still able to smile and be friendly following what she had to already know would be his
last game at AC-S, at least for the foreseeable future.
Lex Lindsey, the former Logan County Lady Cougars assistant coach under Mike Haynes, will lead the Franklin-Simpson Lady Cats (30-3) in
state play Wednesday at this same Diddle Arena. It’s the third time he’s taken F-S to state. His team finished as state runner-up last year. First
round opponent Louisville Iroquois is 29-1.
Lindsey’s team had routed Barren County 55-24 in the championship game the night before as he watched the BGH-Cumberland County game. But the
semifinals had been agonizing with a 48-46 F-S victory after Lindsey’s team had led by 14 early. “When did you start getting nervous,” I asked Lex
about the Lady Purples surging back. “About 3 o’clock that afternoon. With them, 14 points is about like 5.”
Lex is also a former assistant at Warren Central under Tim Riley. During Saturday’s opening boys round, a relaxed Lindsey said his former
boss was tight going into regional play.
“Lex doesn’t know anything,” Riley laughed. “He doesn’t even know who Big Daddy Bob Alou is.”
Riley, who noted that he learned of Justin Bollenbecker from reading the Logan Journal, keeps up with what is going on in Logan County,
including being well acquainted with the Big Daddy legend.
And, as Big Daddy alter ego Lon Sosh says, “If you can’t play a sport, by all means, be one.”