In front of a near sellout crowd, the Russellville Panthers and Logan County Cougars staged a show worthy of such an audience Friday in the first official Clash of the Cats of the season at Russellville’s Jim Young Gymnasium.
Although the Panthers led the entire first quarter, the game featured 11 ties and 15 lead changes. All that necessitated an overtime before the Panthers won 94-85.
Exactly a week earlier, Coach Lonnie Mason’s Cougars had played three overtimes before losing to University Heights Academy in the semifinals of the First Southern National Bank Christmas Classic. The next day, the Cougars were leading after three quarters before Russellville took over that game for an 80-66 win in the third place game.
This time the Panthers didn’t take control until the final two minutes of the extra period.
Mason’s young team is gaining an abundance of experience in playing tough, close games. The Cougars had been getting very little experience in winning those nail-biters. That changed the following day when the Cougars beat Muhlenberg County 71-70 in yet another overtime game.
The Cougars, who usually play only one senior double-figure minutes, built a six-point lead midway through the fourth quarter by outscoring the hosts 11-3. Sophomore Ben Wright put together a 3-point play to put the Cougars up 56-55. Another sophomore, Adam Wilkins, who played so well in this game that he earned his first varsity start the next day, hit a pair of free throws. Junior guard Landon Stratton posted a Panther defender up, rolled, missed a shot, and then put his own rebound back in.
After Russellville senior Josh Hampton scored on an assist from Coco Darden, Logan’s senior, Torin Graham, and Hampton traded free throws. Wright followed with a 3-point goal from the corner to make the lead 64-58 with 4:30 remaining.
Panther senior Darrion Quarles scored on an assist from Hampton, but Logan’s Clint Knight countered with a goal to return the lead to six. The Panthers scored seven quick points to take the lead, three of them coming on a long shot by sophomore Lee McMurray.
The Cougars went up 71-68 when Stratton scored on a length-of-the-court pass from Knight and was fouled, but Hampton also put together three points to tie the score. Mason brought in sophomore starter Tahmir Graham for the first time in the half. He immediately drove toward the basket but missed. Wright converted the rebound to give the Cougars a 73-71 lead. Quarles tied it for the Panthers by driving the baseline with 1:20.
On the other end, Torin Graham tried to pass to his brother, but Tahmir had moved somewhere else. The ball sailed out of bounds. The Panthers had possession of the ball the last 68 seconds. They played for one shot, got two and missed both. The game slid into overtime.
The Cougars led twice in the overtime, once on a 3-point play by Stratton, who was a student in the Russellville system until time to enter high school, and the other on a goal by Torin Graham. The last time came at 81-81 on another Graham free throw.
The Panthers took the lead for keeps on a 3-pointer from the right side by Christian Naylor with 2:02 showing. Graham missed a forced 3-pointer, and soon Jordan Kennedy’s rebound basket on the other end made it 88-81. Barrett Croslin, who had joined Kennedy in foul trouble most of the second half, hit a free throw, and Naylor added two more.
Ryan Basham, only the second senior to see action for the Cougars, came in to shoot from long range. He did so immediately, but missed. Hampton and Darden added free throws to end the scoring.
The game was marred by poor 3-point shooting. The Panthers hit just 5 of 26 from long range for 19.2 percent, but the Cougars were even worse at 18.8 percent (3 of 16). In close, they were much better. Russellville hit 30 of 55 from two-point range for 54.5 percent while Logan was 25 of 51 for almost exactly 50 percent.
The Panthers dominated total rebounding 47-31, since Blakemore wasn’t available but 11 minutes because of foul trouble. He still pulled down 6 rebounds to lead the Cougars with Wilkins getting 5. From his guard position, Darden tied Hampton for the Panthers and game leadership with 10 boards each. Croslin, Kennedy and DeQuan Beard each had 6.
Hampton shot well on the way to leading the Panthers with 23 points. He hit 7 of 8 field goal attempts, not attempting a 3-pointer. He was 9 of 12 at the line, including 7 of his last 8 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Kennedy, Naylor and Darden were all perfect free throw shooters. Croslin and Kennedy each scored 17 and Naylor 13.
Torin Graham led all scorers with 31. Stratton added 17 and Wright 13. Graham, who scored 9 points in the overtime, hit 12 of 16 free throws while Wright and Wilkins each went 4 for 4, Knight 3 for 4 and Stratton 2 for 2. The Cougars were 26 of 32 at the line while the Panthers went 19 of 25 for a combined 45 of 57.
Several players logged lots of minutes. Wright and Torin Graham each played the full 36 minutes, Stratton 31, Wilkins 25 and Knight 24 for Logan. For the winners, Hampton was on the floor 34 minutes, Naylor 31, Kennedy 30, Croslin 29, Darden 22 and Quarles 21. Beard got the most of his time; in 3 minutes he had 2 points, 4 rebounds and a steal while making ball-handling much tougher for Torin Graham.
Score by quarters: 1) RHS 18-15, 2) RHS 31-30, 3) 53-53, 4) 70-70, Final) Russellville 94, Logan County 85
LCHS (85) Torin Graham 31, Landon Stratton 17, Ben Wright 13, Clint Knight 9, Adam Wilkins 8, Taylor Blakemore 3, Tahmir Graham 2, Tucker Baldwin 2, J.R. Morrow, Ryan Basham
RHS (94) Josh Hampton 23,Jordan Kennedy 17, Barrett Croslin 17, Christian Naylor 13, Darrion Quarles 8, Coco Darden 7, Lee McMurry 7, DeQuan Beard 2