The final week of 13th District regular season action begins Monday. It comes with all four teams from the Land of Logan looking much improved over earlier in the season. Last week’s results testify to that.
Three district doubleheaders remain, and district seedings will depend on the results. Russellville’s teams will entertain Todd Central Monday night, and then return the favor by going to Elkton Friday. Logan County’s teams travel to Franklin-Simpson Friday.
The tournament will be played at Todd Central in two weeks.
Here’s a look at what can happen:
Boys Teams
Franklin is in the driver’s seat to be the top seed, and Logan County will be the four seed in the district tournament. The Wildcats are 4-1 in the district and the Cougars 0-5. Still, if Franklin beats Logan Friday, and Russellville sweeps two games from Todd Central, the two teams will be tied for the top seed. If the Cougars upset Franklin and RHS wins twice, the Panthers will be number one. And if Logan wins and RHS and Todd split, the Panthers and Wildcats will be tied at 4-2.
The possibilities are plentiful!
Franklin is going to find the Cougars much improved from how they were playing when they faced the Cats on Jan. 20. Logan was blown out 70-36 that night at home.
But Coach Josh Frick’s Cougars have shown recently that they are playing with much more confidence and efficient execution of the game plan. They lost at Todd Central 70-48 on Jan. 13. That game was not as close as the score would indicate; Todd gained a running clock before halftime.
Then two days ago, the Cougars were a different team. Behind the spectacular play of point guard Kade Wall, the interior defense of center Zane Batten on Rebels star center Jamison Glass, the energy Brady Hinton brought into the game, and the solid play of Jack Doyle, Colby Collins and Evan Campbell, the Cougars (8-16) led the Rebels (14-10) by six points in the fourth quarter and took the game into overtime before a very good Todd Central team won 58-54.
Instead of being overly fatigued and disappointed after that loss, Frick’s team bounced back Saturday afternoon to beat Owensboro Apollo 54-38.
The Russellville Panthers have been on a roll, too. Coach Phil Todd’s team were in better control of the outcome of their second Clash with Logan County last Friday than they had been three weeks earlier. Then four days later, they sent shock waves around the Fourth Region by beating Franklin by 11 points at Franklin. The Wildcats are rated fourth in the region and 12 points better than the Panthers, but it wasn’t the case Wednesday.
Two days later, the Panthers couldn’t repeat when the teams met again. Franklin won by 12 points, but the Panthers had already established they are capable of beating the favorite.
In that win at Franklin, the Panthers hit 8 of 11 three-points with Eli McMurry hitting all three of his tries on the way to 16points and Nick Woodard was 2 of 3 while totaling 112 points. The Panthers also were deadly at the line, swishing 11 of 14 with McMurry going 5 of 6 and A.J. Woodard 4 of 4.
Russellville and Todd Central will play each other in their district opener. Whoever is the number two seed would have the right to be the home team on the scoreboard and wear home uniforms. The Panthers are 3-1 in the district and the Rebels 2-2. If RHS wins either of the head-to-head games this week, (Phil) Todd’s Panthers will be the two seed, not the Todd Rebels.
Girls Teams
Even though Franklin-Simpson has already secured the number one seed in the district tournament with a 5-0 record, the four teams are remarkably well-balanced. It truly is possible for any one of them to beat any of the others on a given night.
Franklin’s overall record is 14-8, Logan’s 14-10, Todd’s 11-10 and Russellville’s 11-11, so all of them are at .500 or better. In district play, Logan is 3-3 with RHS and Todd each at 1-3.
If Todd Central wins both games against the Lady Rebels this week and Logan wins at Franklin, the district records will be RHS and LCHS at 3-3 each and Todd 1-5. But there are a number of other combinations possible.
Last week the Lady Cougars worked themselves into position for a 44-43 win over a Todd Central team that had beaten them 60-47 in Elkton. Russellville, meanwhile, led the Lady Kats 33-20 in the third quarter at Franklin before losing 45-42 on Jasmine Savage’s 3-pointer with just a second left on the clock. Less than a week earlier, the Lady Panthers won 44-35 at LCHS after having lost 54-37 to them at RHS three weeks earlier.
Franklin’s strength has been reduced in recent weeks by a career-ending knee injury suffered in practice by rugged senior forward Hadley Turner, who had been a force on the boards for five seasons. She was average 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds a game. Her absence has shown in the Lady Kats’ last seven games. F-S relies on the quickness and basketball IQ of senior guard Lee Lee Partinger and the outside shooting of Katelyn McAlister.
Russellville relies heavily on the talented duo of sophomore LaReesha Cawthorn and senior A’miyah Collier. The always consistent Cawthorn, who is Second Team All-Region, is averaging 18 points and 13 rebounds a game while Collier is averaging 13.2 points a game. At times, Collier appears to be the best defensive player in the region. She used her quickness and savvy to give Logan’s guards fits in the Jan. 27 game, often converting Lady Cougar turnovers into Lady Panther points.
Senior Jordin Morris has been coming on strong in the middle of late for RHS. Seniors Jaylah Kees and Brinley Mason have been regulars for four to five years, and freshman Ja’eda Poindexter has brought a variety of skills to the mix. Mason’s 3-point shooting has been a big plus.
Logan County depends heavily on senior Gracie Borders, who was named First Team All-Region Friday shortly before joining the 1000-point club that night in the win over Todd Central. Most of her points in that game came after she hit the two free throw to reach mark. “You could tell she had a weight lifted off her when that finally happened,” says Coach Dedra Adler. “After that, she was back to being Gracie.”
Borders us averaging 17 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. She’s hitting 76.9 percent of her free throws (100 of 130), but the m=next best is TaKylah Mason at 54.8 percent. Both Logan and Russellville would have won several more games if their foul shooting had been more accurate.
The Lady Cougars get ball handling, scoring and rebounding from point guard Emily Borders. She is joined by Emerson McKinnis and Brenley Adler in averaging 4 rebounds a game. Both of the Borders girls along with Adler and Kyla Bilyeu are hitting about a third of their 3-point attempts. Nora Epley plays strong defense out front and has hit 47 three-pointers on 152 attempts.
The Lady Cougars’ improvement that included wins over Todd Central and South Warren last week has been the development of young post players Adler and Bilyeu. Adler, a seventh grader, is third on the team in rebounding and fifth in scoring. She tied with Gracie Borders as top scorer against Todd with 13 points, including a third-quarter stretch in which she refused to let her team fall too for behind. Bilyeu , a sophomore, played the point on a trapping halfcourt defense that gave Todd’s small guards a hard time seeing over her 6-1 height and broad wingspan.
All of the crucial action this week begins at 6 p.m. tonight when Russellville goes to Todd Central. WRUS will carry the games live.