For the fourth time this season, the Russellville Panthers and Logan County Cougars will play one of those crosstown rivalry games known here as the Clash of the Cats. This time in will be in the district tournament.
The Panthers are the number one seed in the district with a 5-1 record. The Cougars and Todd Central tied for third place. They each had 2-4 district records and each beat the other at home, so a luck-of-the-draw tiebreaker was needed. It went Todd’s way. As a result Coach Calvin Head’s Rebels will play second-seeded Franklin-Simpson at F-S in Tuesday’s second game. They split wins on the season.
The Logan County Lady Cougars will play Coach Josh Matthews’ top-seeded Lady Wildcats in Monday’s tournament opener at 6:30 Monday. F-S won its two meetings with Coach Scot MacAllister’s Lady Cougars 65-53 and 50-35.
The first Clash of the Cats didn’t count on district standings. It was in the third place game of the First Southern National Bank Christmas Classic. The score was close until the fourth quarter before Coach Phil Todd’s Panthers won going away 80-66. Less than a week later, they met again with RHS holding off the Cougars 94-85 in double overtime. Four weeks passed before their third meeting. This time first-year head coach Lonnie Mason piloted his Cougars to a 75-71 win, their third victory in 13 months over RHS.
On Tuesday, Coach Dedra Adler’s Lady Panthers face two-time defending champion Todd Central in a rematch of last year’s finals. Coach Steve Phillips’ team won 52-18 at Jim Young Gymasium in December, but it was a costly win for the Lady Rebels, since sharpshooter Maggie Simons suffered a knee injury that sidelined her for the season. When they met again last week, RHS had a one-point lead late in the third quarter, but Todd’s Ariel Johnson took the game over in the fourth quarter on the way to a 50-32 win. RHS features the region’s leading scorer in senior Amber Sydnor.
In Tuesday’s nightcap, Coach Dee Spencer’s Wildcats and Coach Calvin Head’s Rebels will meet. They split a pair of games over the season. Franklin-Simpson’s Tanner Clark recorded his 1000th point Feb. 7 in a 39-37 win over South Warren. Clark is averaging 18 points, 5 rebounds, and is a 78 percent free throw shooter. Clark is presently being recruited by Centre, Transylvania, Oglethorpe, University of Dallas, Arkansas Monticello, and McKendree.
The boys championship game will be played Thursday at 7 p.m. and the girls finals will be Friday at 7. Russellville is the defending district champion among the boys, and the Lady Panthers went to the finals and to region last year.
The boys 4th Region Tournament will be played at Diddle Arena Feb. 25-26 and March 1 and March 3. The girls regional will be played at Barren County High School Feb. 27-28 and at Diddle Arena March 4-5.
All games involving Russellville and Logan County will be carried on WRUS.