KILLEN - The offensive balance that helped Brooks nearly run the table during the regular season was on full display in Tuesday night’s Class 5A, Area 16 tournament opener, propelling the top-seeded Lions to a 68-53 win over fourth-seeded Russellville.
The Golden Tigers (7-17) boasted the area’s top two scorers coming into the tournament in junior guards Lucas McNutt (16.0 points per game) and Devin Buckhalter (15.5 points per game), but Brooks (28-1) countered with superior depth and a vast array of weapons capable of impacting any given game at any given time.
“It almost doesn’t matter who they have on the floor, because nothing really changes for them regardless of who’s out there,” said RHS coach Patrick Odom, whose team had dropped two regular-season meetings with the Lions by 16 points and 10 points, respectively. “They have a lot of guys who are basically the same player, and Brian [Wright] does a great job with them. They shot the ball well tonight, and when they shoot it well with the depth they have, it really stresses your defense.”
Junior guard Blaine Roberson was the first player to step to the forefront for the Lions on Tuesday, coming off the bench to bury three first-quarter threes—the last of which ended an early 9-0 run by Russellville and put Brooks on top 15-14 after one.
Junior guard Brett Urban, another reserve, took the baton in the second quarter, knocking down a pair of threes and scoring 12 points to help the Lions stretch the lead to eight at 32-24 going into the break. Urban and Roberson combined for 21 first-half points off the bench, and Brooks shot 7-for-8 from the foul line. The Golden Tigers, meanwhile, struggled to convert quality looks and were unable to create the up-tempo pace they prefer.
“I think we had four defensive rebounds in the whole first half,” Odom said, “which means we weren’t able to get out and run the way we like to. We had some of the best looks we could have asked for early in the game, and we just couldn’t get them to go down. We had a couple that looked like they were halfway through the net and somehow came out.
“If you had told me before the game that we were only gonna score fifty-three points, I knew that wouldn’t be enough for us to win—not in the area semifinals, on the road, against a really good team.”
Brooks essentially put the game away in the third quarter, out-scoring Russellville 20-10 behind seven points from junior guard Dusty Quillen, six from junior reserve Noah Turbyfill and five from 6’4 senior Ben Hamner. The Golden Tigers were within 10 at 44-34 following back-to-back threes by McNutt and Buckhalter, but the Lions closed the quarter on an 8-0 run to lead 52-34 at the end of three.
Russellville made one final push to open the fourth quarter, holding Brooks scoreless for three minutes and going on a 7-0 run to get within 11, but that was as close as the Golden Tigers would get.
“Our guys never quit. They kept fighting all the way to the end,” Odom said. “We had a couple of good looks that would have cut it down to single-digits there with a few minutes to go, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. Give [Brooks] credit. We threw a lot of things at them tonight, but they did a good job defending us in the half-court."
Quillen went 3-for-4 from the foul line in the fourth quarter and wound up scoring 12 of his 14 points in the second half. Urban led the Lions with 16 points, and Turbyfill had 10. Roberson finished with nine points, and Hamner scored seven. Jacob Bange pitched in with six, five of which came in the fourth quarter.
Buckhalter led Russellville with 19 points. He finished the season averaging 15.7 per game and has scored 857 career points heading into his senior year. Senior guard Brock Malone hit three threes on Tuesday and finished with 11 points.
McNutt scored 10 points and finished the season averaging a team-best 15.8 per game. He also led the team with 49 threes made and shot 81 percent from the foul line. Fellow junior Caden Parker scored seven points on Tuesday, followed by Logan Jones with four and eighth-grader Will Bonner with two.
Each team made six threes, but Brooks held a big edge at the foul line, shooting 17-for-20 compared to just 5-for-6 by Russellville.
The Lions advanced to face third-seeded Lawrence County in Friday’s area final. The Golden Tigers, meanwhile, turn their attention toward next season, with visions of Bonner (a pure point guard who flashes special skills when it comes to court vision and passing) pushing the pace and freeing up McNutt and Buckhalter to devote their considerable talents to scoring, shooting and playing D.
“You don’t want to put too much on one guy,” Odom said Tuesday night, “but Will has a chance to make Lucas and Devin different players. And that’s exciting.”
Parker (who averaged 6.3 points per game this season) also returns, and Chandler Dyas (8.0 points per game, 31 threes made) and post player Brooks Scott are bound to take big steps forward following promising freshman seasons. All told, Russellville will bring back players who accounted for 76 percent of the team’s scoring and 130 of the team’s 164 three-pointers made.
“We’re gonna miss our five seniors, but I like the pieces we have coming back,” said Odom, who led the Golden Tigers to area tournament titles in each of his first two seasons. “This was a challenging year for us, in a lot of ways, but I’m proud of the way our guys kept fighting.
“This isn’t how it’s been for us in area play, and it’s not how it’s gonna be.”
