Russellville runs past Greenwood
GREENWOOD — Russellville Coach Kyle Pennington knows teams will want to slow the pace against his team’s uptempo playing style.
Friday night, though, the Cyclones never let the Bulldogs control the pace, forcing 18 turnovers in a 67-55 5A-West victory at H.B. Stewart Arena.
Guards Donyae May and Trey Allen combined for 33 points to pace the Cyclones. May finished with a gamehigh 20 points to lead Russellville while Allen added 13.
“I am so pleased the way Donyae and Trey share the basketball with their teammates,” Pennington said. “We have been on them to rebound and make the right pass to the open teammate. They still are going to score in double figures.”
Russellville (8-3, 2-0) led by as much as 65-42 midway through the fourth quarter before the Bulldogs closed the gap.
“It will be a battle of wills in our conference this year. Teams will want to slow the game down because we will want to play fast,” Pennington said. “I thought we were locked in defensively for the first three quarters of the game. When we are playing good defense, that is a recipe for success.”
Bulldogs Coach Donnie Husband said Russellville’s pressure is not something his team can replicate in practice.
“There were a lot of things we had to do well to compete in this game — taking care of the basketball and stopping their offensive rebounding,” Husband said. “We cannot emulate what [Russellville does] in practice. There were times we handled [the pressure] pretty good, but you have to see that type of pressure a lot to be good against it. You cannot make that many mistakes and give them layups.”
The Cyclones played in spurts in the second quarter, opening the period with an 8-3 run to get their first double-digit lead at 26-16 on a Sayvion Brock stickback with 5:45 left in the half.
Greenwood (3-8, 0-2) would answer with an 8-0 run of its own, the last four from Evan Bartlett, to climb within 26-24 with 3:22 left in the half.
“I was proud of the way we competed,” Husband said. “Russellville is a really good team. I thought we played about as good as we’ve played in any game this season from start to finish even with the mistakes we made.”
Russellville pulled away thanks to a 14-3 run to end the half. May scored nine points of the run, starting it off with a three-pointer and then scoring the final six points of the half as the Cyclones opened up a 40-27 halftime edge.
“I was proud of the way we responded after [Greenwood’s run],” Pennington. “When you go on the road, the home team is 10 points better so you have to play well to win. This team has opportunities to grow and get better. They seem to do that every game.”
Allen scored four points in a 13-5 Russellville run in the third quarter that gave the Cyclones a 53-34 lead. The run was capped by a Caleb Carter three-pointer with 1:46 left in the quarter.
A layup by Allen gave the Cyclones their first 20-point lead at 60-40 and a threepoint play by Marccus Jackson would give Russellville its biggest lead at 65-42.