KILLEN - Russellville girls coach Corey Thomaston wanted to be careful not to put too much emphasis on his team’s Class 5A, Area 16 opener at Brooks. After all, there would be five more area games to follow, and no trophies would be won or lost on Tuesday night in Killen.
Privately, though, Thomaston knew there was a lot at stake for the Lady Golden Tigers, especially with a trip to Moulton to face reigning area champion Lawrence County looming on Friday.
“I don’t want to overstate how important it is,” Thomaston said last week of the battle with Brooks, “but just between you and me it’s a really, really big game.”
Russellville rose to the occasion on Tuesday night, riding a big game from freshman guard Treyvia Pruitt and a lock-down effort on the defensive end to a 42-30 victory over the Lady Lions. With the win, the Lady Golden Tigers (2-7 overall, 1-0 in Area 16) snapped a four-game losing streak and got an early leg up in what should be a highly competitive Area 16 race.
“This was a big win for us,” said Thomaston, whose team held Brooks to just one field goal in the second quarter and then made some big shots down the stretch to pull away. “Like I told our girls, it gives us a chance to control our own destiny. We know we’ve got a tough one coming up on Friday at Lawrence County. We went over there and won an overtime game last year, so they’ll be ready for us.
“Getting this one tonight puts us in a position to really get off to a good start in area play, especially with all these games early being on the road. We know we’re gonna have a lot of home games coming up in the second half of the season.”
Pruitt knocked down a couple of early free throws and a three-pointer on her way to finishing with a game-high 16 points. That included a banked-in three from just to the right of the top of the key in the third quarter that helped Russellville keep Brooks at bay.
“She told me afterwards that was a lucky shot,” Thomaston said, smiling. “She’s supposed to say she called bank on that one. She’s young, though. She’s still learning.”
Young though she may be, Pruitt already has experience beyond her years. In her second season at the varsity level, she’s doubled her scoring average from 5.0 points per game last year to 10.0 so far this year, and she leads the team with 13 threes made—all while logging significant minutes at the point guard spot.
“She’s played a lot of varsity basketball for someone her age,” said Thomaston, now in his second season at RHS. “She’s started thirty-seven games in a row for us over the past two years. She’s really grown a lot as a player, but at the same time she’s still just fourteen years old.”
In addition to her production on the offensive end Tuesday night, Pruitt was also part of a stingy defensive effort by Russellville that stymied Brooks (0-1 in Area 16) all night long. With the game tied 9-9 after one quarter, the Lady Golden Tigers held Brooks scoreless for the first five-and-a-half minutes of the second quarter to open up a seven-point lead. The Lady Lions managed just nine points total in the second and third quarters, and Russellville took a 28-18 lead into the fourth.
Thomaston was pleased with the way his guards (including Pruitt, senior Madison Hargett and sophomores Madison Murray and A.J. Taylor) got after Brooks on the perimeter.
“The best way I can describe it is, our guards were nasty on the ball,” Thomaston said. “We were constantly tipping the ball and getting deflections and doing a really good job of pressuring the ball. We didn’t have to worry as much tonight about them blowing by us, so that allowed our girls to really push out on them.
“We switched back and forth between zone and man tonight, and our girls did a good job with that. We haven’t played a lot of zone yet this year, just because we haven’t had a lot of practice time to work on it. We have a couple of girls who are new and still learning their responsibilities. But we did a good job with it tonight.”
Down eight at the half, Brooks came out and opened the third quarter with back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to four. A pair of free throws from freshman Fallin Cox, Pruitt’s bank job from beyond the arc and a basket by sophomore post player Autumn Logan helped Russellville close the quarter on an 8-2 run.
Logan added another basket in the fourth quarter off a nice drive and dish from Hargett and finished with eight points.
“Autumn Logan is really coming into her own this season,” Thomaston said. “Pretty much every time she shoots, she’s getting hit, and a lot of the time it’s not called because defenders are just bouncing off her. She’s so physically strong. She missed a couple of easy ones early tonight, but after that she did a better job of finishing around the basket.”
Held to just two free throws through the first three quarters, Murray—the team’s leading scorer coming in at 13.8 points per game—got going in the fourth with seven big points down the stretch. Twice early in the fourth quarter Brooks trimmed the lead from ten to eight; each time, Murray responded with a basket to make sure the lead stayed in double-figures. She finished with nine points, going 5-for-6 at the foul line.
“Madison is going to draw so much attention defensively, especially in these area games where teams know each other so well,” Thomaston said. “She’s still learning how to play off the ball and impact the game for her team. She made a couple of big baskets there early in the fourth quarter at a point where the game could have gone either way.
“Either they were gonna make some shots and make a run to get back in it, or we were gonna make a few plays and put it away.”
Hargett finished with five points for Russellville, and Cox and sophomore Lexie Glass added two apiece. The Lady Golden Tigers shot 14-for-24 from the foul line.
Caroline McAdams sat much of the first half with foul trouble and finished with 10 points to lead Brooks. The Lady Lions were just 7-for-17 from the foul line.
Varsity boys
Brooks 60 Russellville 44
Dusty Quillen scored 17 of his game-high 20 points in the second half on Tuesday, helping unbeaten Brooks pull away from the Golden Tigers in the Class 5A, Area 16 opener for both teams.
The Lions (8-0 overall, 1-0 area) led just 26-23 at the half, and a basket by Devin Buckhalter to open the third quarter got Russellville (1-4, 0-1) within one. Brooks answered with three-pointers from Quillen, Jacob Bange and Blaine Roberson, closing the quarter on a 19-5 run to open up a 45-30 lead going to the fourth.
Quillen then went 4-for-4 from the line and scored eight points down the stretch to help the Lions seal the deal.
Buckhalter and fellow junior guard Lucas McNutt each finished with 13 points to lead the Golden Tigers, who got beat up on the boards all night and struggled to find a rhythm on offense.
“We just didn’t play well, which is disappointing after the progress I thought we made toward the end of last week,” said head coach Patrick Odom, whose team has now dropped four in a row. “Like I just told our guys, I don’t feel like anybody in that locker room brought the best version of themselves tonight. When Lucas and Devin don’t play well, we’re not gonna play well, and our guys know that. I just told them the same thing. We needed more guys to impact the game tonight.
“I told them at halftime that if we had five rebounds, I bet [Brooks] had fifty. We got annihilated on the boards. We’ve been out-sized in a lot of games this year, but tonight Brooks was playing with four guards most of the game, just like us. There was no excuse for it. You can’t get out and run when you don’t rebound, so the game was played in the half-court all night. Our two top guys are at their best when they can get in the flow in the open floor, and there was never any flow tonight.”
Brooks opened the game on a 9-0 run, but two threes from McNutt and a nice driving layup by freshman Chandler Dyas got Russellville going. Senior guard Houston Kitterman banked in a 40-footer to beat the first-quarter buzzer, tying the game 12-12.
Dyas and Buckhalter combined for nine points in the second quarter, but the Lions countered with three three-pointers, the last of which came from Noah Turbyfill and sent them into the locker room with a 26-23 lead.
Buckhalter scored to open the third, but Brooks heated up again from the perimeter and pulled away for good.
“A couple of those threes came off offensive rebounds, too,” Odom said. “You think you’re playing pretty good defense when you force a missed shot, but you’ve gotta get the rebound.”
Brooks made eight threes and shot 12-for-18 from the foul line. The Golden Tigers hit six threes and went just 8-for-14 from the line, where they had been shooting 79 percent as a team on the season.
Clay Miller had 10 points for the Lions, and Bange and Roberson added eight apiece.
Dyas battled foul trouble all night and scored seven points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Caden Parker finished with four points for Russellville, and Kitterman added three. Brock Malone and Brooks Scott each scored two.
The Golden Tigers, who went 8-0 in area play last season (tournament included), will return to action with another area game at Lawrence County on Friday.
“Like I just told our guys, nobody was going to win or lose an area championship here tonight,” Odom said. “I told you before the game, I don’t think the area champion in our area will be undefeated. We’ve still got a long way to go.”