Even when the Logan County Cougars were down by 12 points in the second quarter to their biggest rival Friday, anyone who has been watching the Cougars would have been foolish to believe this game would be a blowout. Exactly half of the Cougars’ previous 20 games had been decided by single digits, six losses and four wins. In fact, eight of them had been by three or fewer points.
So, this game was likely headed in a down-to-the-wire direction, despite the double-figure domination the Russellville Panthers were enjoying about three minutes before halftime.
Sure enough, when that intermission arrived, the score was knotted at 34-34, thanks to a heavily contested 3-pointer way behind the arc by senior Torin Graham as the buzzer blew. During that comeback, Landon Stratton scored four points, Ryan Basham put together a 3-point play, and Clint Knight scored on an assist from Graham.
Stratton hit the first goal of the second half, and the Cougars never trailed again until Russellville’s Lee McMurray scored straight five points halfway through the fourth quarter.
The full house at LCHS was being treated to another nail-biting thriller.
And when it was all over, the Cougars had come out on top 75-71, a fitting testimony to how tightly packed the 13th District is from top to bottom. The Cougars, who could end up in fourth place, had just won against the first place Panthers after losing to them in double overtime four weeks earlier. Additionally Logan has split decisions with Todd Central, including a loss in overtime, and has lost by a point in the last two seconds at Franklin-Simpson, the site of the district tournament.
The LCHS win was historic, in that it was the first in the 31-year series by a head coach who had played in a boys’ Clash of the Cats. Lonnie Mason, who is in his first season as head coach of the Cougars, was a member of the Logan County team which went to the regional finals in 1993. That, fittingly, was an overtime game at Diddle Arena. Current (and past) Russellville coach Phil Todd and former Panther coach Dennis Pardue have coached the most boys’ Clashes and are both homegrown, but they had graduated before the creation of Logan County High School.
Graham, who was the playmaker for the Cougar team which broke a long losing streak to the Panthers a year ago on this same floor, had a sensational game Friday. He scored 23 points, hit 13 free throws, grabbed 11 rebounds and handed out 7 assists. All were game highs. “Torin refused to lose,” his coach said.
One of Mason’s teammates on that regional finalist team was record-setting football running back William Darden. His son, sophomore Tacorian ‘Coco’ Darden, is one of the best athletes in the county, but he doesn’t play for Logan County. Instead, he is a football and basketball star in the making for the Panthers. And his absence was noticeable Friday. Not only did the Panthers miss his rugged quickness on both offense and defense, but they also found themselves woefully short of depth. Coco Darden had season-ending surgery on a broken arm earlier in the week.
The depth factor proved to be huge for RHS when the Panthers got into major, deflating foul problems. Christian Naylor, who has been one of the Panthers’ most consistent and most productive players, was on the court less than a quarter, a total of just seven minutes before fouling out. He drew his second foul at 3:02 in the first quarter, and his other three personals came in less than two minutes of combined action. He fouled out on the opening possession of the fourth quarter when he was called for a charge under the goal.
Barrett Croslin, whose second foul came less than three minutes into the game, was the next Panther to foul out. That came with 49 seconds remaining and Logan leading by one. Graham hit one foul shot on the play. Russellville’s Josh Hampton missed his attempt for a tying goal, Taylor Blakemore rebounded for Logan, and leading RHS scorer Jordan Kennedy fouled out trying to get the ball back. Tahmir Graham’s first free throw bounced all over the rim and then went in.
When the younger Graham missed the second free throw, Russellville went downcourt with Darrion Quarles cutting the lead to one with 17.4 seconds left on a rebound basket. Slightly over a second later, Zach Hines fouled Torin Graham for his fourth personal. Again Torin went one for two to make the lead two.
A huge play for the Cougars came when Basham drew a charge on Lee McMurray with 11.3 seconds showing on the clock. That was McMurray’s fourth foul, but his fifth came 3.3 seconds later when he tried to get the ball away from Torin Graham, who hit both free throws to run his stat line to 13 of 16 on the night, including 8 of 10 in the second half.
Four Panthers had fouled out, and Coach Todd had to go so deep into his bench that freshman Colby Nichols, who has seen almost no varsity action this season, played meaningful seconds.
Logan County hit 22 of 34 free throws in the game. Russellville had exactly half as many attempts, connecting on 12 of 17.
The Panthers made their last big run between the three and four minute mark of the last quarter. McMurray tied the score at 64-64 on an assist from Hines. After Torin Graham misfired on a drive, McMurray, a sophomore whose playing time has more than doubled since Darden’s injury, connected on a 3-pointer on another assist from Hines, who is coming back from a broken wrist himself.
The Cougars regained the lead on a pair of free throws by Torin Graham and a goal by Ben Wright on an assist by Blakemore. Quarles gave the Panthers their last lead before Tahmir Graham’s goal on a rebound of his own miss put the Cougars ahead for keeps at 70-69 with a minute and a half remaining.
Two Cougars who were important to the win in the middle of the game were juniors Stratton and Knight. Stratton scored 13 points, handed out two assists, and made only one turnover while doing his share of ball-handling. Knight also had 13 points, hitting 6 of 10 field goal attempts He also had 5 rebounds and an assist.
Sophomores contributing considerably were Wright, who had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists, and Tahmir Graham, who totaled 7 each of points and rebounds.
Kennedy led the Panthers with 19 points and 4 blocked shots. McMurray had a career high of 16 points and Hines added 12. Hines also had 6 of his team’s 10 assists and added 5 rebounds. Quarles joined Hines with 12 points, a team-high 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Kennedy had 3 steals and Hampton 2.
In addition to the free throw differential, the Cougars had an overwhelming 39-28 rebounding margin. They did that without high-jumping forward Adam Wilkins, who missed the game with an ankle injury.
Only one district game remains. The Panthers travel to Elkton Friday to play a Todd Central team, which beat Franklin-Simpson Friday. If Todd wins, the Rebels will be tied with Franklin for the number two seed in the district, and they will play each other in the tournament. If the Panthers win, Todd and Logan will be tied for third. Since they split games this season, a tiebreaker will be needed to see who plays top-seeded RHS and who faces the Wildcats at Franklin.
Score by quarters: 1) RHS 18-11, 2) 34-34, 3) LCHS 58-56, Final) Logan County 75, Russellville 71
RHS (75) Jordan Kennedy 19, Lee McMurray 16, Zach Hines 12, Darrion Quarles 12, Josh Hampton 7, Barrett Croslin 5, Christian Naylor, DeQuan Beard, Colby Nichols
LCHS (71) Torin Graham 23, Landon Stratton 13, Clint Knight 13, Ben Wright 10, Tahmir Graham 7, Ryan Basham 3, Tucker Baldwin 3, John Wilson Coots 2, Taylor Blakemore 1, J.R. Morrow