A handful of games during a sports fan's lifetime are so memorable that they are destined to be relived for years to come. One of those jewels earned a life of its own Friday night at Russellville's Jim Young Gymnasium.

Riding the uncanny shooting of senior wing player Davis Pardue, the Russellville Panthers outscored top-seeded Logan County 83-79 for the 13 ^th District boys basketball championship.

Pardue swished eight 3-point shots and finished with 31 points in his last game on his homecourt. The last of those treys gave the Panthers the lead for keeps with 2:55 remaining in the game. Until that juncture, the score had been tied 12 times with three lead changes.

Pardue's tiebreaker came 10 seconds after he had picked up his fourth foul in a game that featured 48 fouls, including three technicals. One of those techs had been called on Pardue for taunting a Logan player. The other two also came on taunting calls, one against Panther Dominique Quarles and the other on Logan center SaJuan Watkins. The tech on Watkins was especially costly, since it counted as his fifth foul and disqualified him from further playing time with 1:11 remaining.

Ironically, Watkins had been fouled just before he over-reacted to Panther center Jordan Kennedy's being called for a foul. The technical meant a sub had to shoot the free throw. Sophomore Clint Knight, who had played extensively in the first half because of the Cougars' costly foul trouble, hit one of the two shots, but Pardue sank both technical shots to make the lead 79-75.

With 32.3 seconds remaining, Kennedy made a steal and was going goal-ward when he was fouled by Cougar point guard Torin Graham. That was Graham's fifth and final foul. Kennedy hit both free throws to make the lead four. On the other end, Knight and Ryan Harper missed 3-point attempts, and Harper fouled out after Panther Josh Hampton secured the rebound. Hampton clinched the win by cashing in both foul shots.

Logan (22-10), which went into the game 7-0 against district teams, spent the night in foul trouble. The first seven personals of the game were whistled against the Cougars. Leading scorer Twin Lancaster was assessed his second foul after only 3:12 had been played, and fellow senior Aaratan Martin followed with his second whistle a few seconds later. Harper's third came with 1:48 in the first. Coach Harold Tackett's team was one foul away from the double bonus with nine minutes remaining in the half.

The fouls started evening up in the second quarter with Panthers Zach Hines, Harris and Darian Callaway picking up two each and Kennedy getting his second and third fouls within eight seconds.

Both coaches gambled by holding out two of their most important players for long stretches. Lancaster missed almost 13 minutes of the first half, and Kennedy sat out 11 minutes, missing the entire third period.

Subs became important as a result. Knight, Avrey Collier, Landon Stratton and Ben Wright all played extensively in the first half for Logan. Barrett Croslin hit some big shots for Coach Dennis Pardue's Panthers (17-11), and Harris, Coco Darden and Christian Naylor also chipped in big minutes for their team.

Callaway led the Panthers early, scoring all eight of his points in the first quarter. The Panthers led 23-19 at the first stop. Kennedy made the lead five to start the second period, but after that neither team led by more than two in the quarter. Croslin rebounded his own miss and scored to give RHS a 42-40 lead with 5 seconds. Logan freshman Wright hit a shot as time expired, but it came a tenth of a second too late.

Pardue, who scored 22 of his points in the second half, scored eight straight early in the third quarter on a pair of 3-pointers and an assist from Croslin. That made the Panthers' lead 11, the biggest of the game for either team.

Logan came back. Harper put together a 3-point play, drawing Hampton's third foul. Lancaster hit the last two goals of the quarter, tying the game at 57-57 when he swished one at the buzzer following Graham's stripping the ball from Pardue, his old Auburn Middle School teammate.

The Cougars' ran their scoring streak to 15 on a scoring drive by Graham and a rebound bucket by Lancaster to make the Logan lead 61-57. Hines tied it on a pair of free throws and a steal. Logan's last three ties resulted from goals by Lancaster.

In support of Pardue, Kennedy scored 14, Hampton 9, and Hines and Callaway 8 each. The trio who have made Logan the region's top-scoring team all year topped the Cougars again with Watkins scoring 22, Lancaster 20 and Graham 18.

Named to the all-tournament team were Panthers Callaway, Kennedy and Pardue, Logan's Lancaster and Watkins, Franklin-Simpson's Tanner Clark and Todd Central's Jon-Michael Brown. The all-season team included Clark, Graham, Kennedy, Lancaster, Pardue and Watkins along with Logan's Graham and Martin, Russellville's Harris, Franklin's Devin Fox and Todd's C.J. Broderick.

Score by quarters: 1) RHS 23-19, 2) 42-40, 3) 57-57, Final) Russellville 83, Logan County 79

LCHS (79) SaJaun Watkins 22, Twin Lancaster 20, Torin Graham 18, Ryan Harper 7, Clint Knight 5, Aaratin Martin 4, Avrey Collier 3, Landon Stratton, Ben Wright

RHS (83) Davis Pardue 31, Jordan Kennedy 14, Josh Hampton 9, Darian Callaway 8, Zach Hines 8, Barrett Croslin 6, Dominique Harris 5, Coco Darden 2, Christian Naylor