In its infancy, the 2013-14 high school basketball season is as shaky as a toddler taking its first steps in the Land of Logan.
The third Tuesday of the season finds the four teams representing Russellville and Logan County struggling with a combined 1-16 record. The Russellville Panthers have the lone win among the quartet, having edged Todd Central 79-76 Friday for a 1-4 record. The Lady Panthers are 0-5 after a 78-33 loss at Edmonson County last night. The Logan County Lady Cougars saw their record drop to 0-4 last night with a 77-70 loss at McLean County while the Cougars are 0-3.
The reasons for the losses are varied. Both girls teams are adjusting to new coaches—Justin McClellan at RHS and former Lady Cougar Finley Baird Woodard at LCHS. The Lady Panthers and Cougars are having to adjust to the graduation of long-time point guards and star players, Amber Sydnor and Torin Graham, who are now both playing for Campbellsville University. Coach Phil Todd’s Panthers are very young and lacking in size. Injuries have played a role. They are missing rugged point guard Coco Darden, who was scheduled this week for surgery on a knee injured in football. Coach Lonnie Mason’s Cougars are anticipating the return of junior Tahmir Graham, who is almost recovered from a knee injury that happened during summer ball.
Reason for optimism abounds. Both Logan County teams return almost everyone from last year’s squads, and many of those coming back are talented. They’ve just got to get their acts together. The Cougars have exceptional size, although there is a tendency for some of it to be negated by post players wanting to be guards. Development of a leader at point guard is crucial. The Panthers rely heavily on three freshmen—starters Micah Naylor and Pedro Rivera and top reserve Jaylin McMurry. The team’s top scorer in many games, junior Lee McMurry, is in his first year as a starter and has a multitude of potential. Returning senior starters Christian Naylor and Barrett Croslin not only are all-round athletes but they are natural leaders.
The Lady Cougars have too much talent and experience to continue losing. They seemed to be breaking out of their scoring slump Monday, when they exploded for 70 points against McLean. In their first three losses, they had scored 43-40-47. The Lady Panthers have one of the region’s potentially best players in Khalia Hampton. Great potential also can be found in freshman Loreal Chaney, whose mom, the former Sarah Higgins, was a Kentucky All-Star while playing for the Lady Cougars before playing for Murray State University.
Except for Coach Josh Matthews’ Franklin-Simpson girls, the entire 13th District is struggling in pre-holidays games. In fact, when the F-S Wildcats beat Logan and the Todd Central Lady Rebels won in overtime against RHS Friday, those were the first victories of the season for both of those teams. The eight teams in District 13 go into tonight’s games with a combined 8-24 record, and half of the wins are against each other. Take out the Lady Cats’ four wins, and the other seven teams are winless out-of-district.
The LoJo
Logan County fans got a chance to see one of the best young players in the region Friday when F-S freshman Tavin Lovan went off on them for 25 points on 8 of 10 shooting, including hitting all three of his 3-point attempts, and 6 of 7 free throws. Lovan also had 8 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 assists. He comes by that skill honestly. His mom, the former Vernoica Cook, started four years for the WKU Lady Toppers, including in the 1992 national championship game. His dad, Wildcat assistant coach Tony Lovan, is also a former college player.
Tonight, Logan fans who appreciate quality basketball will get a treat when they watch one of the best sophomores in the nation in Glasgow’s Bree Glover, who is a triple double threat every time she takes the court. She is being recruited by some of the nation’s best women’s programs, including Kentucky and Stanford. Senior center Shalika Smith has already signed with WKU, but she is at the most the third best Lady Scottie, behind Glover and tiny freshman point guard Elli Bartley, an adept ball handler who can shoot from long range.
The undefeated Lady Scotties are coached by Justin Stinson, a former assistant coach under Mike Haynes at LCHS. He has built a consistent contender at Glasgow.
I saw the Lady Scotties play at Bowling Green last week in a battle of two of the perennial powers in the region and was impressed with Stinson’s team, which has unlimited potential. If the Lady Cougars can pull off a win tonight, it could kick-start a good season.
Present and former Logan Countians abounded at that BGH-Glasgow game. Among them were Scot MacAllister, the Lady Cougar coach the last eight years, who is now the Russell County girls coach; Todd Steward, the former Warren Central girls coach and athletic director, who has shortened his retirement to be assistant coach for a strong Lady Dragons team under Joe Hood, the long-range shooter for Coach Tim Riley’s 2005 state champions; Logan native Stephanie Mason, whose daughter, sophomore Ta Mia Matthews, helped fuel a Lady Purple comeback that fell just short against the Lady Scotties; Zach Simpson, who remains an assistant coach for the Lady Cougars and who graduated with a masters degree from WKU Saturday; Heather White Stinson & Wayne White, the wife and father-in-law of Coach Stinson; and Donna Lewis Blann, a graduate of RHS who has been the ticket seller for basketball games at BGH for 13 years.
The LoJo
Former Logan Countian Aeron Smith has signed to play softball for the University of Tennessee Martin before the start of her senior season at Greenwood High School. Smith, who was an all-district varsity player for the Logan County Lady Cougars as a seventh grader before transferring to Gatorland, had a season to remember and cherish as a junior. The team’s catcher, she was named MVP of both the district and regional tournaments on the way to the first undefeated season softball season in Kentucky and the state championship. She has also been named all-state tournament the past two seasons.
For her career, she has a .399 batting average, 105 putouts, 150 RBIs, 85 runs scored and a .934 fielding percentage for Coach Penny Reece’s team.
Several schools in major conferences expressed interest in her playing for them, but Smith said she likes the coaches and the school at Martin. She also is excited about the opportunity to play immediately.
Aeron is the daughter of Tim and Darcy Smith. Tim was a key member of Russellville’s first state championship football team as the kicker and targeted receiver. Darcy played basketball for Chandlers High School. Aeron’s brother Zach had good baseball and football careers at RHS. Her cousin, Chanler Steenbergen, was the kills and attacks leader for the regional champion Logan County Lady Cougar volleyball team. Another first cousin, Tori Dillard, was a softball and soccer star for Bowling Green High and now starts for Centre College soccer as a freshman. A distant cousin, Griffin Joiner, has been the starting catcher for UK softball ever since she set foot on campus.
Aeron’s grandmothers, Shelby Piper & Georgia Hodges, live in Logan County.
Not as tied to Logan as Aeron but still of interest to some of us is veteran Franklin-Simpson catcher Emmi Thurmond, who took advantage of the early signing period to cast her lot with Bethel University softball. Emmi is the granddaughter of WFKN broadcaster Steve Thurmond, who also heads economic development for Simpson County.
Thurmond hit .496 with 23 extra base hits and 51 RBIs for Coach Matt Wilhite’s 25-14 Lady Kats and was second team all-state. She and pitcher Shelby Franklin return for another season as the battery for the defending 13th District champions. Franklin is being recruited collegiately by Berea and Brescia.
I had them both in dual credit college speech courses this semester. A few years ago, Emmi’s mom Kelli and Shelby’s sister Cassie were my students in similar classes.
These girls are fortunate to be coached by Wilhite, who played professional baseball for several years and is a class act. He is the son of long-time Logan Aluminum employee Max Wilhite and learned diamond sports from a Hall of Famer, current Panther baseball coach Greg Shelton.