Golden Tigers go 1-2 at Deshler’s Bracy Invitational Tournament
After grabbing a win to open the 2025 Bracy Invitational, hosted by Deshler High School, the Russellville High School varsity boys’ basketball team dropped its final two contests of the tournament to finish fourth.
The Invitational started on Friday, December 26. The Golden Tigers, facing off against the Central Wildcats, earned a huge victory that night, beating CHS 70-33.
RHS dominated the game from tip-off, taking an 18-3 lead in the first quarter and increasing it to 20 points by the halftime break.
Led by 20 points from sophomore Sir Williams, who earned the Singing River Dentistry Player of the Game for his performance, the Golden Tigers continued to outpace the Wildcats—18-12 in the third and 17-6 in the fourth—to secure the 37-point win.
RHS head coach Patrick Odom was pleased with his team’s rout of Central.
“The first night in, that was probably the best game we’ve played all year in the win over Central,” he said.
The following evening, Saturday, Russellville took on the Pearl-Cohn High School Firebirds out of Nashville, Tennessee in the tournament semifinal round and fell 53-40.
The Golden Tigers hung around with Pearl-Cohn in the first half, down 20-17 at the intermission, but coming out of the locker room in the third quarter the Firebirds began to pull away. RHS was outscored 21-6 in the third to make it 41-23 going into the final eight minutes of regulation. A solid 17 points for RHS in the fourth wasn’t enough for the Golden Tigers to make up the deficit and they lost by 13.
Williams once again led the Golden Tigers with 21 points in the defeat.
The Bracy Invitational wrapped up on Monday with Russellville taking on South Lamar in the third place game. South Lamar, who lost to eventual tournament champion Deshler in the semifinal, came from behind to knock off Russellville in a low-scoring 42-38 game.
The Golden Tigers jumped out to a 12-10 advantage in the first period and added to that before halftime to take a 10-point, 23-13 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, however, the Stallions began to chip away at the deficit. The Golden Tigers, who struggled to rebound and hit shots in the final 16 minutes, saw their advantage closed to three points at the end of the third period before it completely evaporated early in the fourth.
With about seven minutes remaining, the Stallions took their first lead since the opening minutes of the first period. South Lamar, who led by as much as seven points at one point in the fourth, never surrendered the advantage once it grabbed it late.
“We kind of ran out of gas tonight,” Odom told the Franklin Free Press after the game. “We’re playing really hard, but I think we scored 13 or 15 points in the second half. We’re still struggling to score consistently and that continues to be our Achilles’ heel.
“Defensively we’re doing enough. But on offense, honestly we can’t get guys more open. We’ve got to start making more shots. If you’re going to beat good teams, you’ve got to make shots. That’s the name of the game,” he added.
Williams scored a game-high 21 points for Russellville in the loss. The Golden Tigers’ record stands at 3-10 overall.
The Russellville High School boys’ junior varsity basketball team with its 2025 Bracy Invitational Tournament championship trophy. (Courtesy photo)
The Russellville High School junior varsity team claimed the JV championship at the Bracy Invitational.
The Golden Tigers knocked off Brewer on Friday before beating the host Deshler in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon.
In the championship game against Priceville, the Golden Tigers downed the Bulldogs 42-29.
Russellville’s Carter Clement was named the championship’s Singing River Dentistry Player of the Game.