By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Hartselle's Lady Tigers, the No. 2 ranked team in the state among 5A schools, outscored Russellville's Lady Tigers 19-5 in the first quarter and went on to log their 21st win of the season, 65-41, at the J.C. Pettey Gymnasium Saturday night. Their record now stands at 21-3, 6-0 with three regular season games remaining.
Hartselle's Tigers were not as fortunate. They were outscored 7 to 2 in the final minute of the game and lost by five points, 61-56.
The Lady Tigers were never threatened as they led 36-19 at halftime and 49-30 after three-quarters. Their full-court press made it difficult for Russellville to move the ball to their end of the court and resulted in numerous turnovers and easy transition baskets.
Lauren Drake paced the Lady Tigers with 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Jessi Smith followed with 10 points and five assists and Jessica Andrews had seven points and seven assists.
Mary Virginia Reeves sustained an ankle injury in the second quarter and sat out the remainder of the game. The injury was not believed to be serious.
"It wasn't pretty but it's a win and we'll take it," Hartselle coach Greg Adams said. "We felt like we could press them and force some turnovers and it worked. That helped us get an early lead, but our offense struggled some after that. Our threes weren't falling. That's something that concerns me and it's something we're going to have to overcome in order to be successful down the road."
Hartselle's Tigers prevailed for three quarters. They were ahead 14-11 after one quarter, 25-22 at halftime and 42-39 after three quarters. But the visiting Golden Tigers outscored the home-standing Tigers 22 to 14 in the final quarter to win.
Corey Trapp scored all seven of Russellville's points in the final 29.7 seconds of the game. He broke a 54-all score with a three-point shot, made two free throws with 10.4 seconds left and added two more free throws with 4.5 seconds left.
The win gave Russellville a 14-5 record while Hartselle dropped to 12-12.
Jackson Holmes paced Hartselle on offense with 16 points. Alex Brown added 11.
Trapp led Russellville with 16 points. He had three treys in the final period.
"It was a well played game by two pretty good teams," Hartselle coach Johnny Berry said. "They're known for making threes and they did a pretty good of that. They had eight for the game and six in the second half.
"We had some spacing problems in the half court offense in the second half and weren't able to get the ball to Jackson (Holmes) in the post the way we like to, and it hurt when he got in foul trouble. But I told our kids after the game that if we do what we're supposed to do we'd come out ahead at the end."
Brewer girls 45, Austin girls 42
Brewer's Morgan Crawley made the most of her one basket of the game.
Crawley hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Brewer a home win over Austin Saturday afternoon. It was the Lady Patriots' seventh win in their last eight games.
Brewer held a three-point lead at halftime but Austin moved in front by two heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Black Bears had a 42-38 lead with 2:17 remaining in the game before Brewer scored the last seven points to take the win.
Brewer (14-7) got nine points from Meagan Hormel. Jazmine Powers had 12 to pace Austin.