The final night of the regular season will be special Friday night. The silver anniversary state champions will be honored at Logan County High School while homecoming is set at Russellville High School.
At LCHS all the living members of the Cougars team which won the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's Sweet Sixteen 25 years ago next month are expected to be present, along with their coaches and managers. A sad moment will come when the memory of Gary Barker is observed. A key senior on that state championship team, he was killed in an automobile accident a few years later while coming home for Thanksgiving as was Craig Townsend, who had quarterbacked the final 12 games of Russellville's 24-game football winning streak in 1985..
Principal Casey Jaynes, who has organized the ceremony at Logan, says that all the players, managers and coaches have accepted invitations to attend. Six of the players currently make their homes in Logan County. They are Warren Thomason, Tim Thomason, John Tisdale, Todd Parker, Phillip Mallory and Brent Hinton. Also still living here are managers Danny Pendleton and Jimmy Cornelius, Assistant Coach Barry Reed and Athletic Director Bob Birdwhistell.
Area residents are Asistant Coach David Beckner and Principal Howard Gorrell. Living in others parts of Kentucky are players Fred Tisdale and Karl Dawson along with Assistant Coach David Billingsley.
Four players and the head coach live out of state. Coming from Clarksville are Coach Gerald Sinclair and player Stacey Mason. From California are guards Tim Viers and Henry Jones. Keith Hines lives in Ohio.
The ceremony will take place between games against visiting Greenwood. The boys will play the first game at 6 p.m. The Lady Cougars and Lady Gators will get a late start following the ceremony,
I'm honored that Jaynes has asked me to introduce the 1984 Cougars as they come on the floor to receive a special recognition from Gorrell and Birdwhistell. Covering that team and the state tournament at Rupp is one of the top memories of my journalism career.
The Lady Cougars  guaranteed themselves a winning season Tuesday by winning 62-47 at University Heights Academy. Coach Scot MacAllister's team ran its record to 12-9 in the process. Remaining on the schedule are Greenwood tonight and the district opener Monday at 6:30 at highly regarded Franklin-Simpson.
Junior Sarah Speck had another huge game Tuesday with 22 points. Senior Jenna Wilson added 16 points as she closes out her basketball career on a high note in February. Michelle England chixpped in 12 points, half of them on 3-pointers.. Ann Dorris, Meagan Williams, Victoria Elliott and Markita Pheal also scored for Logan.
The 15-point margin came on the five 3-pointers the Lady Cougars hit. In addition to England's pair, Speck, Dorris and Williams each had one, The Lady Blazers didn't connect from long range.
UHA (8-17) is coached by former Todd Central athletic director and girls coach Jimmy Chapman
Emily White  will be home from Western Kentucky University tonight to crown her successor as RHS homecoming queen. The Panther JV and Varsity will entertain Butler County, which is 4-20 on the season. When those two teams met in December in the Roy's/First Southern National Bank Classic, Coach Dennis Pardue's team breezed 81-40.
Both RHS teams suffered close losses at Bowling Green High Tuesday, but the Purples and Lady Purples certainly didn't breeze. BGH won the girls game 71-66 and the boys beat the Panthers 59-50.  The Lady Purples are the top-ranked team in the region, even though Franklin-Simpson was state runner-up last year and has only lost three games this season. Both BGH and F-S are ranked in the top 20 in the state. The Purples are the second-ranked team among area boys, trailing only Warren Central.
The Panthers seemed on the verge of being blown out in the first half, trailing the home team 29-19 before Russellville went on a 16-0 run at the end of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third. That made it 35-29 RHS.
The Purples awoke and scored nine straight points themselves to regain the lead.
Pardue's team still had a chance to win late in the game-- trailing only 54-50 in the final minute-- but turnovers did them in.
Sophomore guard D.J. Quarles hit the only two 3-pointers RHS got to fall in 15 attempts, and he finished with a team-high 12 point, tying Purples Jeb Richardson and Tevin Barksdale for game honors. Joining Quarles in doubles figures with 10 each were Devonta Bryant, Charleston Sydnor and Justin Bollenbecker. Trevor Clark, Damien Elam and Kevin Temple also scored.
Bowling Green improved its record to 21-5. The Panthers' mark dropped to 16-8.
The young Lady Panthers  have a 13-13 record, but many of those losses were by close scores to good teams. None was more impressive than playing the Lady Purples to within five points.
The five-point win was the 17th in a row for Coach LaVonda Johnson's team, which ran its record to 22-2.. During that stretch, Warren East was the only team to play BGH closer than did the Lady Panthers. East, which is led by Louisville signee Ashley Rainey, fell by three on Jan. 23.
Russellville, in fact, led 66-65 on Brittany Hampton's goal in the final minute of the game. They had also led 56-50 at the end of a 12-0 run early in the final stanza.
The Lady Purples scored the final six points of the game, four of them on free throws by Adrienne Tarrance, who led the winners with 21 points.
Junior Nakia Daniel had 27 points for Russellville, including hitting five of nine 3-pointers.
Point guard Amber Sydnor added 12, Tameeka Rippy 9 and Victoria Hampton 7. Brittany Hampton, Reagan Leavell and LeAndrea Hooiser also scored for Coach Dedra Adler's team.
The Lady Panthers play Todd Central in the district tournament Tuesday at Franklin.