Pardue, the Auburn native and still resident who was head boys basketball coach of the Russellville Panthers for eight seasons, will bring his Kenwood Knights back to the Land of Logan next month to defend their championship of the First Southern National Bank Christmas Classic.

Tournament Director Holli Brown has released the pairings for this year’s tournament, which will be played Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 29-30. Eight teams play in the boys division and eight teams in the girls.

Pardue coached the Panthers to three straight Classic titles in 2008-10. His final RHS team in the 2011-12 season, lost to Bullitt Central in the finals. After a stint teaching and coaching at Garrard County, he accepted the heading coaching position at Clarksville Kenwood last year. He won his fourth Classic title last December and is coming back for a shot at his fifth title in the 11-year history of the event.

Kenwood opens the tournament against Owensboro Apollo at the Logan County Auxiliary Gymnasium at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29. In the second game of the day, Coach Lonnie Mason’s Cougars will take on Prestonsburg from the eastern part of the state at noon.

That night, the winners and losers of those two games will play. The losers’ bracket game starts at 7:45 and the winners will meet at 8. The games will be at LCHS, but which gym for which game will be determined by who is playing in them.

On the Russellville side of the bracket, Dyersburg, Tenn., which fielded the 2007 champion, will go against Springfield, at 11:30 a.m. in the school’s middle school gym. Springfield played in this tournament last year when Tim Riley was the coach. Riley is now coaching Owensboro Catholic.

Coach Phil Todd’s Panthers will play St. Mary of the Paducah area at noon that Tuesday in Jim Young Gymnasium.

Losers of these games will play at 7:45 and winners at 8, both at RHS. Gym sites will be determined based on results from the earlier games.

All four boys games will be played at RHS Wednesday, Dec. 30. The seventh place game begins at 1:30 p.m., fifth place at 3, third place at 5 and the championship game at 6:30.

WRUS and Roy’s Bar-B-Q are also involved in sponsorship of the tournament. A number of local eating and lodging places also make arrangements to make the teams welcome in their two-day visit here.