It was a big night for the Russellville High School varsity basketball teams on Monday night as both teams routed the Haleyville Lions at the Russellville Middle School gymnasium. The RHS girls’ team dominated the Lady Lions 67-26 while the RHS boys’ team used the second half of its game to pull away in a 93-70 victory.
In the girls’ game, Haleyville hung around with the Lady Golden Tigers for the first period but it was all Russellville after that. Russellville dropped 27 points in the second period to outscore Haleyville by 21 and took a 42-20 advantage into the halftime break.
After the intermission it was more of the same story as the Lady Golden Tigers, led by 25 total points from sophomore Ella Copeland, continued to dominate in every facet of the game. RHS outscored the Lady Lions 18-4 in the third quarter and 7-2 in the final eight minutes with a running clock to win by 41-points, the largest margin of victory for the Lady Golden Tigers this season.
“The girls have bought into trying to play a little bit harder,” Russellville head coach Jermaine Groce said in a postgame radio interview. “We’ve done some things to try to motivate them and incentivize them to not just look up so much and see how many points they’ve got at the end of the night but how many deflections can you get? How many steals can you get? How many offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds? How many times do you dive on the floor for a loose ball? Things of that nature, and, you know, the girls—it’s a testament to them—they’ve just bought into the small things like that.
“We’ve scored 60 points the last two (games), so definitely trending in the right direction,” he added.
The Lady Golden Tigers have increased their commitment to improving in two specific areas—rebounding and their press defense—Groce said, and it’s seen them through to big results over the last couple games.
“We’ve been working a lot harder (on rebounding) in practice here recently and just kind of told them to have the mindset of, you know, you may not score 15 points this game but you can dominate the boards and you can help us score 15 points off your offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds,” Groce said. “We’ve just been reiterating that over and over to them to buy into that, and if you score the extra points on top of that, it’s just more on top of that.
“We’ve always (played press defense) at times throughout the season, but now it’s a non-negotiable. We are going to press the entire game. And that’s what they’ve really done well. We blended two presses and they know how to get into a full-court press and that three-quarter-court press immediately, whether it’s made or missed, and I think, to me, that’s the difference in the last few games.”
Up next, the Lady Golden Tigers will travel to play Class 7A Florence, which will present a big test, on Tuesday, but the game circled on the calendar is Friday’s area contest at home against Lawrence County. The showdown against the Lady Red Devils will have major area tournament implications as a win against LCHS will give RHS home court advantage in the area semifinals on January 31; a loss to the Lady Red Devils and home court advantage will be determined by a coin flip.
“We need to replicate this same energy and effort defensively (against LCHS). It’s all about defense,” Groce said. “We know Lawrence County is going to travel well. Their fans are gonna come in here and fill this gym. They’re gonna be scrappy and they’re gonna bump you and they’re gonna push you and they’re gonna jump on your back. Can we stay committed to what we do? If we can kill ‘em on the boards I think we’ll be fine, so that’s the message to them: play defense and rebound.”
The boys’ game played out much the same way with Haleyville staying within striking distance for a while before Russellville put the contest completely out of reach.
At halftime, the Golden Tigers led by eight points, 43-35, but really turned up the heat on the Lions in the final 16 minutes. RHS extended its lead to 12 points after the third period and then outscored Haleyville 26-15 in the fourth to win by 23 points, 93-70, the most points scored by Golden Tigers this season.
Russellville head coach Patrick Odom said his team’s stamina and ability to wear down opponents with pace was key to the win Monday night.
“You see what Russellville Golden Tiger basketball is. You may run with us for eight (minutes), you may run with us for 16, but it’s a 32-minute basketball game,” Odom said in a postgame interview on WGOL 100.7 FM. “You saw (Haleyville) kinda hit the wall tonight and that’s what we love, that’s what we want, that’s what we’re after.
“I told them after the first quarter, ‘Guys, if they wanna play at this pace we’ll do it all night long,’” he added. “Credit our guys for just sticking to it.”
Individually, Odom was impressed with the performance of senior Jah Williams who, along with fellow seniors EJ King and Rylan Pratt, was recognized pregame. Williams, the head coach said, provides the spark for the squad even though not everyone realizes it.
“EJ may be the best player around but Jah may be the second best player around. He flies under the radar on our team because EJ’s so great, but Jah has been our catalyst. He’s a leader,” Odom said. “The other night when we’re playing West Point they gave us about 10 different looks, and he’s actually adjusting things before I can sometimes. You don’t get those guys. He’s played for us so long, and he’s kind of an extension of me out there at times.
“I’m so proud of how he’s playing. Obviously he was great tonight,” he added.
Russellville, which clinched its spot in the area tournament championship after defeating West Point last week, will take on Florence in its next game on Tuesday. Scheduling teams like Florence, who received votes in the latest Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 7A poll, gives the Golden Tigers an opportunity to face top-notch competition with an eye towards the postseason, Odom said.
“When you start making a run in 5A state playoffs, these are the types of teams with the length and size and the quickness (you’ll see), so we want our guys to be as prepared as they can,” he said. “We just want our guys to get so accustomed to play in that level and that style that way we’re ready for anything we’ll see as we advance and, hopefully, keep playing for several more weeks.”
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