WINFIELD - Russellville rallied twice from double-digit deficits to take a late lead against Winfield on Friday night, but a putback by Luke Jungels with four seconds remaining—followed by a questionable traveling call against the Golden Tigers—gave the Pirates a thrilling 63-62 win on their home floor.
Russellville (1-3) was trailing by three with less than a minute to play when senior post player Calen Bragwell scored on a putback to cut Winfield’s lead to 61-60. Head coach Patrick Odom quickly called timeout to allow the Golden Tigers to set up a half-court trap. The ploy paid off when junior guard Lucas McNutt picked off an errant pass by the Pirates and streaked to the other end for an uncontested layup and a 62-61 lead with 20 seconds remaining.
On Winfield’s ensuing possession, junior guard Landon Hinshaw missed a pull-up jumper from the right wing. Senior forward Trey Lacy missed a weak-side tip-in, but Jungels, a 6’5 junior, grabbed the rebound and scored with 4.0 seconds on the clock to put the Pirates back in front 63-62.
Odom again called timeout, and the Golden Tigers drew up a final play. Following another timeout—this one by Winfield—Houston Kitterman inbounded the ball to junior guard Devin Buckhalter, who had scored 12 of his season-high 21 points in the second half. As he caught the pass in between the three-point arc and the half-court line and made his move toward the basket, Buckhalter was called for steps—much to Odom’s disbelief.
“I don’t usually say much, but that was tough,” Odom said after the game. “You’d like to see the players get an opportunity to decide the game in the last few seconds. I’m not saying we would have won, but it would have been nice to have that chance. We had exactly what we wanted, too—the ball in Devin’s hands, maybe twenty-five feet out, with plenty of time to get something going to the basket.
“Take nothing away from Winfield. They had some guys make some really big plays, but I thought [the traveling call] completely changed how the end-game played out. It was tough.”
Russellville gave a foul on the ensuing inbounds play, and Winfield’s Randall Boman missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2.7 seconds remaining. McNutt grabbed the rebound, but his 60-foot heave came up empty as time expired, and the Golden Tigers were forced to swallow the bitter pill of their third consecutive loss.
“It was frustrating, especially with the way it ended,” Odom said. “I despise the result, because I wanted our guys to get that reward I thought they deserved, but I’m really proud of the way they played. We had some guys step up and start making plays and making big shots in clutch situations down the stretch. I thought we played with a lot of toughness, the kind of toughness that can really carry us going forward.
“I think you also saw that when number five [Buckhalter] comes to play the way he did tonight, we’re a pretty good basketball team.”
After injuries and foul trouble conspired to keep him on the bench for most of the week’s first two games (at Hamilton on Monday and at Haleyville on Thursday), Buckhalter broke loose on Friday for his second 20-point game of the season. McNutt, Russellville’s leading scorer coming in at 19.0 points per game, finished with just six, but other scorers emerged to help carry the load.
Chief among them was freshman guard Chandler Dyas, who caught fire in the fourth quarter and knocked down a trifecta of threes—one from the left corner and two from the right—to keep the Golden Tigers right in it down the stretch.
“If anybody was wondering why he’s out there, that’s why,” Odom said of Dyas, who finished with a career-high 15 points in just his fourth game at the varsity level. “It didn’t surprise me at all to see him do that. We know what he's capable of. And the great thing is, our other guys trust him. They’re looking to get him the ball in that situation.
“He hit some big shots for us there, and that won’t be the last time. I promise.”
Senior Houston Kitterman added nine points for Russellville, five of which came in a 14-6 run to close the first half that trimmed Winfield’s 10-point lead to two at 27-25 going into the break. Buckhalter scored eight points in the third quarter, but the hot-shooting Pirates countered with three-pointers from Lacy, Boman and Hinshaw to push the lead back into double-digits.
Back-to-back turnovers by Winfield resulted in layups by Buckhalter and McNutt to cap off a 6-0 spurt by Russellville that got the Golden Tigers within five at 44-39 going into the fourth quarter.
Lacy scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and finished with four of the Pirates’ nine three-pointers. Boman knocked down three treys and added 17 points.
The Golden Tigers made six threes on the night, three less than Winfield, but they more than made up the difference at the foul line, shooting 12-for-15. The Pirates attempted only five free throws all night, making just one.
Through four games, Russellville is now shooting 79 percent (77-for-98) from the line as a team. Kitterman went 2-for-2 on Friday and is now a perfect 7-for-7 on the year. Dyas was also 2-for-2 on Friday and is now 7-for-8 on the season. McNutt did not attempt a free throw Friday night and is still 26-for-27 on the season, with 24 consecutive makes.
Bragwell finished with six points for Russellville on Friday. Senior Brock Malone had a key three-point play in the second quarter, and Caden Parker added two points.
The Golden Tigers will open Class 5A, Area 16 play next week with games at Brooks on Tuesday and at Lawrence County on Friday.
Varsity girls
Winfield 41 Russellville 27
The Lady Golden Tigers snapped out of their recent free-throw shooting slump, going 13-for-18 from the line on Friday, but they made only two baskets from the floor in the first three quarters and suffered their fourth straight loss.
Russellville (1-7) trailed by 24 late in the fourth quarter before closing the game on a 10-0 run that included baskets by Madison Murray and A.J. Taylor and a pair of three-pointers from senior Xaria Hollingsworth.
Murray finished with 12 points to lead Russellville, reaching double-figures for the seventh time in eight games. Hollingsworth had six points, and Treyvia Pruitt scored three. Taylor, Autumn Logan and Madison Hargett added two apiece.
Andrea Harbin led Winfield (2-1) with 13 points.