Russellville girls earn season sweep of rival Lawrence County, clinch 2-seed for area tournament
The Russellville High School varsity girls’ and boys’ basketball teams traveled to Moulton to face rival Lawrence County in their regular season area finale Thursday night, seeing mixed results.
The RHS girls came away with a scrappy 53-44 victory to claim the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Class 5A Area 15 tournament; meanwhile, the boys from Russellville fell to the Red Devils 67-41 to fall to 0-4 in area play.
In the first game of the evening, the Lady Golden Tigers got off to a quick start, jumping up on LCHS 8-0 in the first quarter. Russellville was able to maintain that advantage throughout the first half, taking a 35-27 lead into the halftime break.
There were a lot of fouls in the first half, and that edge continued in the backend of the contest as the physicality turned to chippiness late in the game.
Russellville, which held a six-point, 43-37 lead going into the final eight minutes of play, continued to stave off Lady Red Devils runs, but the battle between the two rivals became heated in the fourth quarter.
At the end of one play, two players tangled up with each other and emotions boiled over. Pushing and shoving ensued, the floor had to be cleared of players and fans, and three technical fouls were issued—two to Russellville and one to Lawrence County—resulting in two technical free throw attempts for LCHS.
Russellville senior Laila Hill, who was involved in the incident, also left the game; she finished with six points for the Lady Golden Tigers.
Play eventually continued and the Lady Golden Tigers, who led the entire game, were able to put the hosts away with nine points to spare. The result improved RHS to 2-2 in area play, gave the Lady Golden Tigers the season sweep over Lawrence County, and clinched the team the two-seed for the area tournament, meaning the Lady Golden Tigers will host the Lady Red Devils again in the tourney semifinal.
Junior guard Ella Copeland, coming off a career-high 38 points in the Lady Golden Tigers’ previous game against Florence, scored a game-high 28 points against Lawrence County. Angeleah Smith also hit double figures for RHS with 11 points.
The win improved the Lady Golden Tigers to 13-11 overall. Their next game will be played at home against Haleyville on Thursday, January 29.
In the nightcap game between the Russellville and Lawrence County boys, the Golden Tigers fell behind by double digits early and could not recover.
The hosts stormed out to a 17-3 lead by the end of the first and held a 36-17 advantage at the intermission.
In the second half, Lawrence County continued to extend its lead over the Golden Tigers, ultimately winning by 23 points. The defeat dropped RHS to 4-18 overall this season.
Sir Williams was Russellville’s top scorer in the loss with 12 points.