The Russellville Panthers managed to stay away from regional favorite Warren Central when the pairings for the Fourth Region Boys Basketball Tournament were drawn Saturday night.
Coach Phil Todd’s 13th District champions (11-18) are scheduled to play 15th District runner-up Monroe County (20-10) in the final game of the opening round Thursday at 8 p.m. at Barren County High School in Glasgow.
Each tournament team only has three opponents it could draw in the opening round. District champions play runners-up and cannot draw the other representative from their district. The other two teams the Panthers could have drawn are Central (22-5) and Russell County (18-8). Central, which has been the top-rated team in the region all year, was upset in Saturday’s 13th District finals by Coach D. G. Sherrill’s Bowling Green Purples (24-6), who hit 32 of 43 free throws in the game.
As usual, 13th District runner-up Franklin-Simpson (8-18) has to play either BGH or Warren Central in the opening round. This time Coach Dee Spencer’s team will go against the Purples.
The tournament starts Wednesday with the BGH-Franklin game at 6 p.m., followed by 15th District champ Barren County (21-8) playing at home against Russell County (18-9). The other Thursday matchup besides RHS-Monroe finds 16th District champion Clinton County (22-7) against Coach William Unseld’s Central Dragons. Between them they are a combined 27-2 against other regional teams, each having lost only once.
If the Panthers beat Monroe, they will play in the semifinals on Monday, March 10, at 8 p.m. The championship game will be Tuesday, March 11, at 7 p.m.
Nine of the Panthers’ 11 wins have come against Fourth Region teams. They are 3-4 against teams in the regional tournament with all three wins having come against Franklin.
WRUS will broadcast all regional games involving the Panthers or the Logan County Lady Cougars.