ATHENS - Down one to Lawrence County at halftime of Monday night’s Class 5A, Area 16 semifinal, Russellville coach Corey Thomaston had an uneasy feeling heading into the locker room at East Limestone High School.
“I told our coaching staff, I was concerned that we hadn’t been able to take advantage of them having three starters in foul trouble in the first half,” Thomaston said. “I was also concerned that we hadn’t been able to convert on some good looks in the paint and that we were 1-for-6 from the foul line. I didn’t feel like we had created the kind of cushion we were gonna need.”
Thomaston would love to have been wrong, but he couldn’t have been more right. Lawrence County senior Lauren Hopper, saddled with two quick fouls in the game’s opening minutes, returned to the floor and dominated the paint in the second half, scoring all 14 of her points after the break and helping the Lady Red Devils pull away for a 54-26 win that earned them a spot opposite East Limestone in Thursday’s area final.
The Lady Golden Tigers, meanwhile, were left to stew over a nightmarish second half in which they made just two field goals and got out-scored 32-5.
“This was a tough way for it to end,” said Thomaston, whose team had split two meetings with Lawrence County during the regular season and tied the Lady Red Devils in the area standings at 3-3. “I have thoroughly enjoyed coaching these young ladies, and I hate for it to end with such a sour taste. I was looking forward to two more weeks of basketball. I thought we had a good game plan. We just didn’t execute it well enough, and they out-played us in the second half.”
That was primarily due to Hopper, who owned the boards on both ends of the floor and scored seven points each in the third and fourth quarters.
“She’s about two inches taller than anybody we have, and she’s so strong,” Thomaston said. “I thought she did a better job of finishing her opportunities tonight. The first two times we played them, she wasn’t able to convert as much, but tonight she did a better job finishing around the basket.”
Fellow senior Kelsey Gillespie provided the perimeter punch for Lawrence County, knocking down four threes and scoring a game-high 15 points. She hit two threes in the first half to help hold down the fort after sophomore guard Chloe Orr picked up two early fouls, and then Gillespie made two more threes and scored eight points during a decisive third-quarter run.
Leading 22-21 at the half, the Lady Red Devils got two threes from Gillespie and six points from Hopper in a 12-2 run that made it 34-23. They wound up out-scoring Russellville 17-3 in the third, and Anna Claire Hutto’s corner three early in the fourth stretched the lead out to 20 at 44-24.
Sophomore post player Autumn Logan had the only two second-half baskets for the Lady Golden Tigers (9-20).
“We had a hard time getting good looks in the second half,” Thomaston said. “We took some difficult shots that weren’t really high-percentage shots. I thought we were a little tight, too. We came out tight in the first half, and we played even tighter in the second half.”
Senior guard Madison Hargett carried Russellville offensively in the first half, hitting a pair of timely threes and scoring 10 of the team's first 16 points.
“It was pretty clear that Madison didn’t want this to be her last game,” Thomaston said. “She really played with a sense of urgency in the first half, and you see that a lot of times from your seniors in games like this. You try to get your young bucks to understand, but as a freshman or a sophomore, you have that tendency to say, ‘There’s always next year.’ For seniors, though, there is no next year.”
Trailing 17-11 after a three by Gillespie midway through the second quarter, the Lady Golden Tigers got a three-pointer from Hargett to spark a 10-1 run. Hargett added a coast-to-coast layup, and freshman guard Treyvia Pruitt scored five quick points as Russellville surged to a 21-18 lead.
Lawrence County scored the final four points going into the break and never looked back once Hopper and Orr returned to the floor after missing all but a handful of minutes in the first half. The Lady Golden Tigers, meanwhile, couldn’t find any offense in the second half, as the absence of sophomore guard and leading scorer Madison Murray—who suffered a torn ACL in mid-January—loomed large.
“They did a better job taking away Madison Hargett’s looks in the second half,” Thomaston said. “And without Murray out there to balance things out for us, it was tough.”
Hargett finished with 11 points, and Pruitt added seven. Logan scored four, and A.J. Taylor and Lexi Glass each had two. Russellville finished just 2-for-8 from the foul line.
Hutto had nine points for Lawrence County, and Sadie Thompson added eight. Orr finished with six, and MaKaylee Smith had two. The Lady Red Devils survived a 10-for-23 night at the foul line and will get a chance to repeat last year’s win over East Limestone in the area championship game.
The Lady Golden Tigers, meanwhile, will turn their attention to a future that looks bright in spite of Monday’s outcome.
“I like what we have coming back, and we have some young girls coming up who are really gonna push for spots next year,” Thomaston said. “I think we’re headed in the right direction, but we’re still a step or two away from where we need to be. I hate that it ended the way it did tonight, but I challenged our girls to use this as motivation for next year.
“It’s all about how hard they’re willing to work on their craft over the next few months. Hopefully, we won’t have the same deficiencies we have now when October 15 rolls around.”