Russellville varsity basketball squads swept at home by area rival West Point
The Russellville High School varsity girls’ and boys’ basketball teams were swept at home by area rival West Point on Friday night, setting the two teams back in the race for the No. 1 seed in the area tournament later this campaign.
The RHS girls, who faced off against the No. 4 team in Class 5A, fell 69-46 to the Lady Warriors, while the Russellville boys were toppled 56-40 by WPHS.
In the girls’ matchup the Lady Golden Tigers didn’t play poorly but fared how one might expect a young squad against a top five team in the state.
“It was a tough area game. West Point always comes out and forces you to play well the entire game,” Russellville girls’ head coach Jermaine Groce said. “I am proud of how our girls competed. There was a little stress in the game and it had a playoff atmosphere, and we wouldn’t want anything less.”
While West Point continued to extend its lead slowly but surely throughout the contest, there was a feeling that the Lady Golden Tigers were never quite out of it. Still, WPHS was able to push its advantage to 23-points by the end of the game.
West Point doubled up on Russellville 18-9 in the first period and led 39-23 by halftime. At the end of the third quarter, the Lady Warriors had increased the margin by 21 points.
Ultimately the Lady Golden Tigers were unable to get shots to fall when they needed them most.
“West Point is going to force you to attack, force you to get the ball out of your hands quick, and they’re going to be super physical with you,” Groce said. “I like to think that we shot the ball a lot in that game, but it just didn’t go in as much as we would like, and we let one of their shooters get hot. I’m proud of how we played defensively, especially on the interior around the rim, but we just couldn’t stay in front of a couple of their best players.”
Groce’s takeaways from the defeat were that his squad needs to do a better job in the future of limiting easy baskets and second chance opportunities.
“We had a few turnovers that led to easy transition baskets for them—just easy uncontested layups—so we’ve got to reduce those drastically. And then (West Point) did a good job of getting second chance opportunities and getting rebounds,” he said.
Junior guard Ella Copeland, who is averaging 23.4 points per game this season, led Russellville with 22 points in the loss. Senior Laila Hill also added 15 points for the Lady Golden Tigers.
The result drops the RHS girls to 10-8 overall and 1-1 in Class 5A Area 14.
The Russellville boys’ basketball team suffered a similar fate as the girls, but the Golden Tigers were able to keep it a little closer, especially in the first half.
RHS trailed 18-14 after the opening period and was down by just two points, 27-25, at halftime.
As has been the case for much of the 2025-26 season, however, the Golden Tigers began to fade in the second half, allowing the Warriors to create separation. West Point finished the first half on a 7-0 run and made it a 13-0 run going into the start of the third quarter.
The Golden Tigers were only able to score 15 points in the final 16 minutes of the game while the visitors scored nearly twice that.
“We had great prep which led to our first half, probably one of the best halves of basketball we’ve played all year,” Russellville boys’ head coach Patrick Odom said. “We still just struggled to put the ball in the basket. No matter how hard you play, you still still need to see it go through, and that was the difference in the second half.
“As a coach what you want your guys to do is fight their butts off for all four quarters, and I felt like we did that. But our Achilles’ heel all year has been getting the ball in the basket,” Odom added. “On paper I think West Point is the best team in the area, but I think we showed that we’re continuing to work and continuing to grow.”
Russellville, which has just three wins this campaign, dropped to 0-2 in the area after the defeat. Odom said that losing area games is obviously never part of the plan, but he feels that there is still plenty of season left and that the Golden Tigers can still achieve positive results if they continue to work hard and get hot at the right time.
“I don’t think that I’ve ever had a group like this one that has gone through the adversity they’ve gone through and still continues to show up with togetherness and heart,” the head coach said. “My first year here (at Russellville) in 2016, I think we went into the area tournament and had won six or seven games. We had a lot of struggles. The funny thing is that no one remembers that; what they remember is that we won the area championship,” he added. “Basketball is a crazy game. I believe that we’re getting better, and we’ve played a lot of good teams that have pushed us. I think if we continue to show that growth, we’re going to win the right games at the right time.”
Russellville is set to travel to Haleyville for its next game on Monday, January 12.