On a night to remember forever, Russellville’s pair of first-year basketball coaches earned their first-ever district victories Thursday evening. They will get unlimited opportunities to discuss them now and reminisce about them later, since Shannon and Rex Booth are wife and husband.
Here’s how Shannon Booth described her Lady Panthers’ win at Franklin-Simpson:
“The Lady Panthers went on the road and beat a very tough Franklin-Simpson team 61-52. Up 20 going into the third, we had some “unfortunate” plays and calls but our girls never gave up! I’m SO proud of all these girls!
“The Lady Panthers were led in scoring by junior Deshala Leblanc with 22. Leblanc was big from the charity stripe tonight, going 10 for 13. Right behind her in contributing was 8th grader Anastasia Dowlen. After taking a pretty hard hit to the face in the third and sitting out most of the quarter, Dowlen came back in the game in the fourth quarter and ended with 20 points and 19 rebounds. Yes, you read that right...19 REBOUNDS.
“We may have won only two games, but I can assure you that if you watched us tonight, we don’t look like a two-win team. I’m laying it all on the line with my girls. Brick by brick!”
In their win over Cumberland County, Leblanc scored 22 points with Jayce Buchner adding 8 and Dowlen 6. Carleigh Phillips, Brinley Mason 8 and Dowlen each had 8 rebounds with Leblanc getting 6.
The Panthers beat Franklin 64-49 with Jacob Naylor scoring 19 points, Devin Quarles 12 and Akeem Dukes 9. Also scoring were Anthony Woodard, Jacolbie Mason, Elijah Kemp, Hunter Armistead, and Parker Jones.
Franklin led 43-42 after three quarters, but the Panthers scored 22 points in the fourth quarter with Naylor getting 10 of them. They hit 12 of 17 free throws, including going 5 for 5 in the final period.
Coach Rex Booth credited Quarles with being a calming influence in the final period.
Jevon Covington led the Wildcats with 12 points, the only player on Coach Dee Spencer’s team in double figures. Dayveon Miller scored 8 with Alex Gilbert and Colin Thompson each adding 6. A key to the RHS win was holding F-S standout guard Dee Ragland to 5 points.