If Russellville's basketball teams are to qualify for the state Class A Classic in Richmond next week, they probably will have to get by a strong contingent from Glasgow this week.
The Panthers and Lady Panthers are the host schools for the semifinals and finals of the Class A 4th Region Tournament. As a result, they hold the byes in the seven-school field. That's the only favor they got in the brackets, though, since they drew into the same bracket with Glasgow's teams.
Glasgow's teams play Cumberland County tonight in one of three site-based double-headers that will determine who joins RHS at Jim Young Gymnasium this week.

Boys Regional
Glasgow joins Russellville with very similar stat sheets. Both teams are 11-4 overall. The Scotties are 6-4 in the region and the Panthers 4-2. Glasgow is outscoring its opponents 71-59. The Panthers' average score is 69-60.
Glasgow opened its season with a 70-68 win over a Greenwood team which beat Russellville 68-63 last Tuesday, the night after the Panthers' emotion-draining one-point win at Logan County. Warren Central beat the Panthers by a single point and Glasgow by seven within a week. Glasgow has split with Allen County-Scottsville and lost to regional favorite Bowling Green by only five. The Panthers won their last game impressively, romping past another regional contender, Franklin-Simpson.
The Scotties have one of the region's top player prospects in senior Cameron Hall, who is the son of Coach Jeff Hall. The dad was a key player on the University of Louisville's national championship team in 1986.

The Scotties will be heavy favorites over Cumberland County (7-10) tonight. The winner plays the Panthers in Thursday's 7:45 p.m. semifinals at RHS.

The other two games tonight feature Monroe County (7-7) at Metcalfe County (7-10) and Cinton County (9-7) at Todd Central (4-10). Winners of those two games will play in Thursday's other semifinal at 6 p.m., also at Jim Young Gymnasium. The regional championship game will be played Friday at 8 p.m. at RHS, whether the Panthers are one of the participants or not.

The Fourth Region champion will play in the opening game of the Touchstone Energy All A Classic at McBrayer Arena on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University Thursday, Jan. 28 at 8 a.m. (Russellville time). The opponent will be the Fifth Region champion. Campbellsville (14-2) is the favorite to win the Fifth Region, which is being played at its home gym. Green County has the second best record at 8-5.
Other Fifth Region Class A teams are Fort Knox, Bardstown, Caverna, Washington County and Bethlehem.

Girls Regional
A matchup between the Lady Panthers and Glasgow also seems inevitable, but a lot of power awaits in the opposite bracket.
Glasgow (10-5) also hosts Cumberland County tonight. Cumberland, which has fielded some excellent girls teams in recent years, is struggling in 2009-10. Also known as Lady Panthers, Cumberland is 3-13 overall and 0-6 in the region. Glasgow has played only two Class A teams from this region, winning over Todd Central and losing 47-46 to Monroe County. Against larger Fourth Region teams the Lady Scotties are 5-4.
Russellville is 6-9 overall and 2-5 in the region. Coach Dedra Adler's team has only played one other Class A regional team, losing 63-52 to Todd earlier in the season. RHS is showing improvement, having beaten Logan County in overtime and playing Franklin-Simpson close in the first half Friday. The Lady Panthers also made a good showing in the First Southern National Bank/Roy's Bar-B-Q Christmas Classic, winning their first game and then losing to a pair of quality opponents by two points each.
The Russellville-Glasgow (probably) game is schedule for 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Jim Young Gymnasium.

In the other two games tonight, Todd Central (4-9, 3-5) has to go to a Clinton County team that is 12-6 overall and 7-3 in the region. The Lady Bulldogs lost to Monroe County early but have won three straight against Class A opponents. Monroe County (9-5, 7-4) goes to Metcalfe County (9-7, 4-5). They have split a pair of games already this season.

That semifinal contest will be played at RHS Wednesday at 6 p.m. The championship game is scheduled Friday at 6 p.m., also at Jim Young Gymnasium.

The champion of the Fourth Region will play the Region 1 survivor at 7 p.m. (Russellville time) at EKU on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Murray, which is 16-1 overall and undefeated in Kentucky, is a heavy favorite to reach state. Other contenders are Ballard Memorial (14-4) and Community Christian (10-5). Also in that region are Class A teams Mayfield, Carlisle County, Heath, St. Mary, Hickman County, Fulton City, Fulton County and Reidland.