Drawing Franklin-Simpson in the 13th District Tournament has been a death sentence for other teams' seasons for years, and the same proved to be true
Monday. The Russellville Lady Panthers put up a fight, however, refusing to go gently into that good night.
Coach Dedra Adler's team led or stayed within a couple of points of the Lady Cats almost the entire first half and were within seven points in the
middle of the fourth quarter. The strength and skill of F-S star Chastity Gooch proved to be too much to overcome, and the Lady Cats won 59-47.
Coach Lex Lindsey's Lady Cats have won five straight district championships and three of the last four regional titles, finishing as state runner-up
two years ago. Counting Monday's win, F-S is 28-5 in the postseason, beginning in 2005.
Nakia Daniel is well aware of how good Franklin teams have been over the years. She's been a starter for the Lady Panthers all six of those seasons.
She and her younger teammates didn't let that bother them, however. Despite Daniel and Tameeka Rippy each drawing two fouls in the first quarter,
Russellville held its own impressively.
When freshman point guard Amber Sydnor banked in a bucket at the buzzer, the Lady Panthers had tied the score at 11-11 after a quarter. Another
freshman, Kesi Neblett, blocked Gooch's shot to start the second quarter. Nikki Rose forced an over-and-back
turnover on the Lady Cats, and Sydnor scored her eighth and ninth points to give RHS the lead. Franklin scored, but Imani Hampton gave the Lady
Panthers the lead again. Then Daniel made a steal and hit a layup. Russellville was ahead 17-14, even though that was the only basket of the first half
for Daniel, the Lady Panthers' all-time leading score with over 1,800 points.
Russellville stayed close. When Hampton hit a free throw with 1:30 left in the half, the score was tied at 21-21 for the last time. Bianca Bryant
scored for the Lady Cats on a rebound, and Gooch's bucket made the lead four. The Lady Panthers in-bounded the ball with 11.4 seconds on their end of
the court with a chance to cut the lead to one or two points, but Gooch made a steal and scored to make the halftime lead 27-21.
Sydnor, who has been Russellville's starting point guard since she was a seventh grader, had 11 points at the half.
On an assist from Sydnor, Imani Hampton scored the second half's first goal to cut the lead to four. Franklin went back up by six, but Hampton
responded with another goal. Then F-S scored six straight points to build a 35-25 lead before guard Brittany Hampton hit a shot for Russellville.
Rippy hit a shot, and then Daniel's offense came to life. She made a steal and hit a layup, and then hit her first 3-pointer of the game to cut the
Lady Cats' lead to 40-34. Franklin was up 45-34 going into the final quarter, but Daniel hit two more treys to get her team withing 47-40.
Gooch took over in the final minutes, finishing with 29 points, 18 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. "She may be the best junior in the state. She played
that way tonight," Coach Lindsey said. "I usually let other people do the praising of our players, but when you put up the numbers she did tonight, she
deserves all the praise she can get."
Franklin went ahead by 17, but Daniel hit her last shot as a Lady Panther to make the final score 59-47. She finished with 15 points with Sydnor
scoring 14 and Imani Hampton11. The Lady Panthers ended their season with a 7-17 record. "I was proud of the effort we gave. We didn't let them have it
without a fight," Coach Adler said.
Briana Smith and Tradesha Chapman each finished with 10 points for the Lady Cats (20-8)..
The Lady Cats will play the Logan County Lady Cougars in Thursday's 7 p.m. championship game. Logan beat Todd Central for the third time this year in
Monday's semifinals.
Score by quarters:
1) 11-11, 2) F-S 27-21, 3) 45-34, Final) Franklin-Simpson 59, Russellvlle 47
RHS (47)
Nakia Daniel 15, Amber Sydnor 14, Imani Hampton 11, Brittany Hampton 4, Tameeka Rippy 2, Kesi Neblett 1, Rose, Hoosier
F-S (59)
Chastity Gooch 29, Briana Smith 10, Tradesha Chapman 10, Williams 5, Bryant 4, Curtis 1