For a half, it appeared that Russellville and Logan County were headed to a second down-to-the-wire finish in the Clash of the Cats Friday at RHS.
The second half was a different story.

Russellville's quickness, athleticism and trapping defense overwhelmed the Cougars' senior guards, and the Panthers took all the drama out of the game for the visitors' fans, who had hoped to witness the school's first win over their cross-town rivals in recent history.

Instead, Russellville coach Dennis Pardue, who grew up as a student in the Logan County School System, ran his record to 27-0 against Logan County in the midst of his 12th year as a head coach, the first six at Todd Central.

Logan started strong with their dynamic forward combination of Twin Lancaster and Troy Graham scoring all 18 Cougar points in the first quarter. Lancaster scored his team's first six points, Graham the next eight, and Lancaster four more to build an 18-10 lead. Yet Russellville's Damien Elam penetrated for a goal and teammate Trevor Clark scored to make Logan's lead 18-14 after a quarter.
Russellville scored the first five points of the second quarter for its first lead, Graham tied it on a free throw, and then Kevin Temple's goal gave the home team the lead for keeps at 21-19 with 5:48 left in the half. Elam hit a 3-pointer, but Logan stopped the 14-1 Panther run on a goal by Phillip Stratton. Davis Pardue, who had just entered the game, hit a 3-pointer for the Panthers to make it 27-21.

Logan came back. Brett Sowell hit a 3-pointer, and Reuben Rawlings-Watson a free throw to cut the lead to two. Temple hit a pair of free throws, but once again the margin was two when Graham dunked on an assist from Rawlings-Watson.

Devonta Bryant put up a shot for the Panthers that drew double trouble. Sowell was called for his second foul, and Lancaster was whistled for goal tending. That provided Bryant his first points of the game, but it foreshadowed what was to come. It also started runs of 18-0 and 27-1 for the Panthers, who led 33-27 at halftime.

Then the Russellville defense turned the lights out on the Cougars. With the Panthers' football backfield of Bryant, Quarles, Elam, Temple and Victor Hampton making life miserable for Cougar point guard Seth McReynolds, the Panthers repeatedly turned turnovers into layups. Bryant hit three of them, Elam two and Quarles two to make it 48-27 before Lancaster got Logan's first point of the half on a free throw with 2:33 left in the third quarter.

Bryant then hit three straight shots and Temple hit a goal after the Cougars' third consecutive turnover to double the score at 56-28. Finally McReynolds not only got the ball across midcourt but hit a 3-pointer, for the Cougars' first field goal in over seven minutes. The Panthers led 58-35 entering the final period.
Bryant scored 14 points in the Panthers' dominating 27-1 surge.

Despite some help from freshman point guard Torin Graham, who scored 10 points in a hurry and helped break the Panther press, the Cougars could never get closer than 20 in the fourth quarter.

Russellville had good balance with Bryant scoring 15, Quarles 13, and Elam and Temple 12 each. Bryant had a double-double, pulling down 11 rebounds. Hampton added 6 boards as the Panthers took a 35-32 rebounding lead. Bryant added 3 each of assists and steals. Elam had 6 steals and 3 assists while Quarles had 5 assists and 3 steals.

The most telling statistic was Logan County's total of 31 turnovers, almost one per minute. McReynolds had 10 with Sowell and Troy Graham at 5 each. Logan had 10 assists, led by center Derrod Blakey with 4 and and Sowell with 3.
Lancaster had a double-double that was identical to Bryant's with 15 points and 11 assists. Blakey added 6 rebounds. Sowell got 3 of the Cougars' 6 steals.
Troy Graham took game scoring honors with 16 points. He hit 8 of 11 free throws to do that. The rest of the team went 5 of 9 at the line. The winners only got to shoot 12 foul shot, hitting 6.

The Panthers hit 52.5 percent from the field, including 65.5 percent (19 of 29) in the second half. That shooting including 7 of 17 from 3-point range. Logan was just 19 of 53 from the field for the game (35.8 percent).

The Cougars, who beat Trigg County Saturday to run their record to 11-13, finished 1-5 in the district. If the Panthers beat visiting Todd Central (4-6, 1-4) Friday, the district will finish in two ties again and coin flips will be needed for seeding. RHS won over Todd Central 74-61 earlier in the season.

Score by Quarters: 1) LCHS 18-14, 2) RHS 33-27, 3) RHS 58-35, Final) Russellville 77, Logan County 54
LCHS (54) Troy Graham 16, Twin Lancaster 15, Torin Graham 10, Brett Sowell 4, Seth McReynolds 3, Phillip Stratton 2, Derrod Blakey 2, Reuben Rawlings-Watson 2, Davenport, Barbee, Wells, Statton
RHS (77) Devonta Bryant 15, D.J. Quarles 13, Damien Elam 12, Kevin Temple 12, Victor Hampton 9, Davis Pardue 6, Trevor Clark 4, Justin Bollenbecker 3, Jordan Kennedy 3, Murphy, Bibb, Hines, T. Hampton, D. Quarles