By Brannon King for the FCT

The 2016-17 varsity basketball action got underway with the Russellville boys winning their opener Monday night and the girls dropping their first two games of the season.

The RHS boys defeated the Colbert County Indians 84-78 Nov. 21 at home in front of a big crowd. The Golden Tigers jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead to start the game and got scoring from eight different players in the first quarter.

Russellville (1-0) led 44-31 at the half and held an 11 point lead after three quarters. Colbert County came on strong in the final period, outscoring RHS 29-24 to make the Golden Tigers fight for the victory, which can be valuable experience for the team as the season goes along.

“It wasn’t necessarily pretty at all times, but I was proud of our guys for being able to finish the game the way that we did,” Russellville Head Coach Patrick Odom said. “I thought it was a good team win for our guys. It’s going to take a team effort for us every night, and I was pleased with that. We get to correct what we did wrong, and it is fun to do that after you’ve won.”

Bailey Motes led Russellville in scoring with 26 points. Austin Stidham (15) and Taylor Vincent (10) also scored in double figures for RHS. Devin Buckhalter (9), Judd Ward (8), Lucas McNutt (8), Nate Franklin (7) and Caden Parker (1) also scored for Russellville.

The Russellville girls opened their season by participating in the Lady Hawks Thanksgiving Tournament in Danville Saturday. The Lady Golden Tigers came up short in the first game of the tourney that continued Nov. 22-23. RHS trailed 51-15 at the half and lost to Brewer 69-40 in game one.

Kallie Allen of Russellville led all scorers with 18 points. Treyvia Pruitt (5), Jamie Hill (4), Krista Sikes (3), Alexis Taylor (3), Lexie Glass (3), K.K. Harvey (3) and Madison Murray (1) all scored for RHS in Coach Corey Thomaston’s first game as head coach of the Lady Golden Tigers.

Monday night, Colbert County grabbed a 44-18 first half lead and never looked back to defeat the Lady Golden Tigers 68-35.

The young RHS squad fought hard until the final buzzer and held Colbert County to only six points in the fourth quarter.

“Colbert County is long and athletic and really caused a lot of problems in the backcourt,” RHS Coach Corey Thomaston said. “We’re young and learning and just didn’t handle the pressure. Even when we beat the pressure in the backcourt, our decision making in the frontcourt wasn’t what it consistently needed to be tonight.”

Allen (12), Sikes (6), Hill (5), Makayla Phifer (4), Murray (2), Glass (2), Pruitt (2) and Harvey (2) all had points for Russellville.