Going against a Logan County team that played no one below a junior, the young Russellville Lady Panthers picked up a win to cherish Friday, beating
the visiting Lady Cougars 56-47.
Coach Dedra Adler used 5’10” freshman Khalia Hampton, 6’1” sophomore Kesi Neblett, and sophomore point guard Amber Sydnor, who is in her fourth season
as a starter, much of the game, along with seniors Tameeka Rippy and Brittany Hampton. They ran plays, took good shots and cooly hit free throws in the
clutch.
Russellville led most of the first half but the Lady Cougars tied it at 22-22 as the half arrived on a 3-point goal by Meagan Williams. The Lady
Cougars continued their surge to start the third quarter, going up 33-23 on a 16-footer by Miranda Rone.
The next five and a half minutes belonged to the home team. It started when LeAndra Hoosier hit a 3-pointer after a Brittany Hampton steal. When Sydnor
made a steal and scored with 5:30 remaining in the game, she completed a 22 -point turnaround as the Lady Panthers went up 49-37. Sydnor scored 10 and
Hoosier 7 of the 26 points during that RHS blitz.
“I told our team afterwards that we played five good minutes and won the game,” said Adler, a former Lady Cougar standout. “Just think what we could do
if we played that way for a whole game.”
The Lady Panthers have been playing much better lately. After losing their first seven games, they have won six of their last eight. One reason why is
the return of Neblett, who was late coming out for basketball after the volleyball season ended. The team is still without last year’s starting post,
junior Imani Hampton, who suffered a knee injury before the season began.
Logan mounted a comeback late in the fourth quarter, led by senior Kayla MacAllister. She hit two straight rebound shots to cut the lead to 49-42 with
2:09 remaining, but Russellville’s seniors hit a free throw each and Sydnor popped in two more foul shots to build the lead back to 10 with 41.2
seconds.
The Lady Cougars made one last surge with MacAllister hitting a free throw and scoring on an assist from Jaylin Jones. Rone cut the lead to six by
getting 2 of 3 free throws to fall with 26.3 seconds showing.
Russellville hit 15 of 22 foul shots in the fourth quarter and 20 of 33 for the game. Logan was 9 of 13 from the line. From the field, the Lady
Panthers hit about one-third of their shots (17 of 52) and the Lady Cougars one-fourth of theirs (18 of 71). All those missed shots resulted in 98
rebounds with RHS holding a 53-45 margin there.
Sydnor scored 18, Brittany Hampton 12, Neblett and Hoosier 9 each, Rippy 5 and Khalia Hampton 3 for the winners, who evened their district record at
1-1. Kayla MacAllister led the Lady Cougars with 16 and fellow seniors Rone and Williams scored 12 and 10, respectively. Two more seniors, Markita
Pheal and Victoria Elliott, added 5 and 2. The only points by an underclassman were Jones’ 2. The other players to see action were juniors Shannon
MacAllister and Meg Brown.
Coach Scott MacAllister’s team, which fell to 0-3 in the district standings, ran its record to 5-7 the following afternoon with a 56-44 win at Warren
East.
The next Clash of the Cats will be staged Feb. 4 at LCHS.