Four down-to-the-wire games in the semifinals and finals left the Logan County Lady Cougars as runner-up and the Russellville Lady Panthers fourth among eight teams in the First Southern National Bank/Roy's Bar-B-Q Christmas Classic last week.
After beating Garrard County 62-57 in Tuesday's semifinals at Russellville's Jim Young Gymnasium, the Lady Cougars fell 59-54 to Middlesboro in Wednesday afternoon's championship game.
Meanwhile Coach Dedra Adler's Lady Panthers lost two games by two points each. In the semfinals, they were edged by eventual champion Middlesboro 45-43. Then in the consolation game for third place, they dropped a 57-55 overtime decision to Garrard County.
"It's encouraging to play good teams like these two so close, but it would be nice to win at least one of them, too," said Adler.
Scot MacAllister, who has coached the Lady Cougars to double digit wins already this season, sees the hard work he and these players have put in over the years coming together positively. There's room for improvement, but the Lady Cougars now are among the Fourth Region's best teams.

Logan County 62, Garrard County 57
Logan had a chance to win the game in regulation when Victoria Elliott made a steal. MacAllister set up a play and the Lady Cougars got two good shots, but they didn't fall and the game went into overtime.
Meagan Williams was four for four at the foul line in OT and Kayla MacAllister hit one of her trio of 3-pointers to seal the victory.
Williams, who hit four treys, finished with 25 points, 6 deflections amd 4 steals. Elliott pulled down an amazing 14 rebounds from her guard position. Sarah Speck, who rebounded well in the second half, had 12 points and MacAllister 11. Also scoring were Elliott, Markita Pheal, Michelle England, Jaylin Jones and Miranda Rone.
Devin Conley had 15 for Garrard with Holly Meadows scoring 14 and Kelly Smith 12.

Middlesboro 45, Russellville 43
The Lady Panthers had three shots to tie the game, but none of them fell, allowing Middlesboro to keep its championship hopes alive.
Veteran senior sharpshooter Nakia Daniel led the Lady Panthers with 19 points, and 6-0 freshman Kesi Neblett added 10. Fellow freshman Amber Sydnor scored 6 and Brittany Hampton had 5.
Also scoring were Tameka Rippy and Imani Hampton.
Leading the Lady Jackets were Samantha Coleman with 15, Carissa Overbay with 11 and Mallory Sheffner with 9.

Garrard County 57, Russellville 55
The game was close throughout, but the Lady Panthers had the lead longer than the eventual winners did. Russellville led 5-0 and 8-2, but the Lady Lions led 13-10 after a quarter and 27-25 at halftime.
Russellville outscored the guests 12-2 to build the game's longest lead at 37-29 on a couple of goals by Imani Hampton and Daniel's long shot. Garrard came back to tie the score, but Sydnor's 17-footer with a minute left in the third quarter put RHS up 41-39. The Lady Lions took the lead at 42-41. Nikki Rose couldn't get a shot to fall at the buzzer, and the Lady Panthers trailed by one entering the final period.
Daniel hit a pair of free throws, a six-footer and a goal on a steal to give the home team a 4744 lead. Still she had to hit a free throw with 7.7 seconds to send the game into overtime at 50-50.
Imani Hampton stuffed her own rebound back in to let the Lady Panthers record the first basket of the overtime, but the Lady Lions outscored RHS 7-3 the rest of the way for the win.
Daniel had 21 points, Imani Hampton 16, Sydnor 11, Sydnor 5, and Brittany Hampton 2.
LeAndra Hoosier was named to the Academic All-Tournament Team, representing Russellville.

Middlesboro 59, Logan County 54
The championship game was played close and well. The Lady Jackets led 14-13 after a quarter. They were up 21-13, but Logan scored eight straight points. Jones, who was a sparkplug throughout the game, scored on a steal, Williams hit a 3-pointer, Speck scored on a curl through the lane, and Jones put Logan up 22-21 on a steal. Still Speck's rebound shot with 7.7 seconds remaining was necessary to send the game into intermission tied.
Williams hit a pair of 3-pointers around another trey by England to put Logan ahead 35-32 in the third quarter, but Middlesboro went up 40-35 before Speck made a steal and MacAllister hit a shot. The Lady Jackets led 43-39 going into the final period.
Speck took over Logan's part of the fourth quarter, controlling the boards and scoring 10 of her team's 16 points. In the process she went 6 of 6 at the line. Pheal hit two shots in the stanza, too, but Middlesboro got a little more done than the Lady Cougars to seal the five-point win.
Speck finished with 22 points and Williams had 12, all on three-pointers. England had 7 points, Jones 6, and Pheal and MacAllister 4 each.
Williams was also named to the Academic All-Tournament Team, representing Logan County.

Note: Williams scored 17 points, England 16 and Speck 12 as the Lady Cougars beat Monroe County 72-59 Saturday to start the 2010 portion of the season and to run their record to 10-4.