Inside domination and ball control proved more valuable than outside shooting and bench production when the Russellville Panthers completed their sweep of close encounters with Logan County 77-70 in the Clash of the Cats Friday.
The Cougars picked up an eye-popping 44 points from the reserves and hit nine 3-pointers—popping iin 43 percent of their long-range attempts.
On the other hand, the Panthers had starting post players Pedro Bradshaw and Jaylyn McMurry total 41 points and 19 rebounds while the four guys who played the post for Logan—Will Bingham, Robert Dancer, Jack Wright and Sedale Shannon---combined for four points and four rebounds.
Added to that, the Panthers forced the Cougars into twice as many turnovers as the home team made—18 to 9.
In fact, the deciding moments of the game came early in the fourth quarter. Cougar Coach Lonnie Mason had his two guards who aggressively attack a defense—Austin Rayno and Noah Whittinghill—lined up on the corners of the 3-point line, and Panther coach Phil Todd called on his legendary half-court zone press to prevent those two from touching the ball. That left veteran guard Garrison Rosser to face the Panthers’ tenacious defense without another ballhandler by his side. Todd’s tactic worked, as the ball kept turning over about midcourt into a new direction—toward the RHS goal.
That turned a 52-47 lead into a 60-48 worksheet.
Logan sophomore sub Mykal Hampton responded by hitting a pair of 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 23 points.
The Cougars never were close again until the final minute when Dalton Furlow rebounded a teammate’s wild shot for a goal and Whittinghill hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 71-67.
But Paul Jones, who had a big game off the bench for the Panthers, and Bradshaw each hit a pair of free throws and McMurry one. The final margin came on a 3-pointer by the Cougars’ Lorenzo Garcia.
Bradshaw had his typically strong game with 25 points and 12 rebounds. To start the second quarter, he hit four straight free throws, assisted McMurry with a no-look pass, put together a 3-point play, and then threw an assist to Jason Mitchell. The Panthers had turned a 10-10 tie into a 21-10 Panther lead with Bradshaw involved in every point.
The Cougar who stopped that run was Furlow, a senior who had missed over half the season with a broken arm he suffered in preseason practice. He scored 17 points, including 2 for 4 shooting from long range and 7 of the 8 free throws. He also pulled down five rebounds.
Hampton, who also came off the bench, hit all nine of his field goal attempts, including going 5 for 5 in 3-pointers.
Russellville, which has shot well at the line most of the season, kept the Cougars in the game by hitting only 12 of 25 on this night, but the Cougars were just as bad at 10 of 19.
It was a long night with a total of 100 free throws shot in the two games plus as extra-long Hall of Fame ceremony in between, but Russellville came away with a sweep of the Lady Cougars and Cougars.
Score by Quarters: 1) 10-10, 2) RHS 30-26, 3) 50-47, Final) Russellville 77, Logan County 70
LCHS (70) Mykal Hampton 23, Dalton Furlow 17, Noah Whittinghill 12, Lorenzo Garcia 11, Garrison Rosser 3, Robert Dancer 2, Sedale Shannon 2, Will Bingham, Austin Rayno, Jack Wright
RHS (77) Pedro Bradshaw 25, Jaylyn McMurry 16, Paul Jones 12, Jason Mitchell 9, Micah Naylor 9, Jacob Naylor 6, Shon Kees, Rickey Bellamy