by Brannon King for FCT

Senior night in Russellville brought the Tharptown Wildcats and a large crowd for both teams to the gym Friday night.  Emotions ran high and tempers flared late in the game as Tharptown avenged an early-season loss and defeated the Golden Tigers this time, 65-56.

“We played hard.  We played last night and didn’t give a lot of effort, so I was a little bit worried coming into this game but for some reason, Russellville’s always a big game for us and we always play hard,”  Tharptown head coach, Jonathan Odom said.

The win meant a lot for the 2A Wildcats playing against the 5A Golden Tigers.  “It has become a rival for us and we are proud of that, to be a rival with a 5A school.  To be able to compete with the bigger schools is good for our program and shows us we are where we need to be,” Odom said.

Tharptown (24-2) got off to a quick start outscoring Russellville 22-15 in a fast-paced first quarter.  Max Nolen scored 7 of his game-high 22 points in the opening period before things slowed down in the second.

The Wildcats only scored 8 points in the second quarter while Russellville only managed 4, all by Austin Stidham and Tharptown led 30-19 at the half.

Things heated up in the second half.  Tharptown’s Nathan Chaney got hot with two quick 3-pointers and Russellville answered with the duo of Tyler Willis, who hit a couple of threes of his own and Adonis Bailey who got things working under the basket.  The Golden Tigers trimmed the lead to single-digits going into the final quarter and trailed 46-37.

The action really got going in the fourth quarter.  The emotions of a match-up between two schools just down the road from each other rose to a high level as both teams showed a strong will to win.  Physical play and some talking between a couple of players from both teams with near 5 minutes to go in the game led to a technical foul and brought even more energy into the gym.

With just over four minutes remaining in the game, Russellville had cut the lead to 51-47.  Tharptown then held on with the help of Max Nolen’s 9 points and the team’s 12 made free-throws in the quarter to pick up the exciting victory.

Max Nolen (22), Nathan Chaney (12) and Bailey Motes (12) scored in double-figures for the Wildcats.  Heath Hatton (9), Eric Odell (4), Drake Lawson (3), Blake Gray (2) and Mikey Rosson (1) also contributed points for Tharptown.

Adonis Bailey led the way for Russellville with 14 points.  Tyler Willis (13), Austin Stidham (12), Cedric Freeman (5), Christian Foster (5), Joshua Seal (3), Taylor Vincent (2) and Colby Tompkins (2) all scored for the Golden Tigers.

“You’ve gotta give Tharptown a lot of credit, they are a good ball club.  They know what it takes to win, we’re still trying to learn what it takes to win,” Russellville head coach, Michael Smith said.  “Our seniors are continuing to fight and try and win ball games.  Right now it means a lot because you see how our fans showed up to send them off and we appreciate that and they really wanted to win this ball game, we just shot the ball poorly and the only thing we can do is get ready to go again Monday.”

After a game with Deshler Monday, Russellville will then travel to play at West Point against the Warriors in the 5A Area 14 tournament on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.

Tharptown will host the 2A Area 16 tournament and will play Cherokee on Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.