The approach that Russell County coach William Carson, III wants his team to have is to focus on one game at a time.
The Lakers did just that on Thursday night.
Brayton Scales scored a game-high 17 points, and Russell County pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 53-38 victory over Franklin-Simpson in the first round of the Fourth Region Tournament at Western Kentucky University’s E.A. Diddle Arena.
“Just a total team effort,” Carson, III said. “We have this mentality that we adopted starting last week that it’s just focus on the next stop…focus on the next play. (Thursday night) we just bought in. We got the rebounds when we needed to, and we got the stops.”
Russell County (13-20) became the first team since Metcalfe County in 2006 to advance to the semifinals of the Fourth Region Tournament with a losing record. The Lakers have been clicking as of late, riding a three-game winning streak that includes an upset of Clinton County in the 16th District title game. Russell County ended the regular season with a mark of 10-20.
“I told them that the regular season doesn’t matter,” Carson, III said. “We’re learning; it’s a process. We try to take it game-by-game and get better, and when the district tournament starts that’s when it matters. We’re taking it one game at a time right now, and it’s on to the next one. Monday night we’re going to try and go 1-0.”
The Lakers will play Warren Central at 8 p.m. on Monday night. The Dragons advanced with a 68-63 win over Glasgow in the nightcap on Thursday night.
Franklin-Simpson (7-23) took an early 13-8 lead in the first quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers by Andreyous Miller before Russell County senior Hayes Coffey scored a basket towards the end of the period to cut the Wildcat lead down to 13-10.
The Lakers opened up the second quarter with a basket by Ben Walters, and Russell County took a 14-13 lead after a score by Tate Richardson.
Russell County built its lead up to 24-15 after a basket by Walters inside with 4:20 left before halftime, but the Wildcats went on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes—Alex Gilbert nailing two free throws to tie it up at 24-all with 2:13 to go. A Laker basket by Coffey at the 1:07 mark gave Russell County a 26-24 edge at the intermission.
The two teams engaged in a defensive battle in the third, and Franklin-Simpson ended the quarter on a 4-0 run—a layup by Miller just seconds before the horn shrinking Russell County’s lead down to 35-31 heading into the fourth.
The Lakers then opened up the final frame on a 8-0 run, and a basket by Coffey gave Russell County a 43-31 lead with 5:39 remaining—the Wildcats never being able to get it back to single digits the rest of the way.
Russell County was able to sway the momentum early in the fourth by forcing turnovers and converting those miscues into points on the other end of the floor.
“That was huge,” Franklin-Simpson coach Dee Spencer said. “The guys played hard; it just wasn’t our night.”
The Wildcats were still a surprise team in the regional tournament this season, especially after Franklin lost 10 seniors to graduation last season.
“I’m super proud of our guys,” Spencer said. “I told them that we were playing with house money. Nobody expected us to be here, especially after the season we had. The guys came out and played hard, did what was asked. We just didn’t finish.”
Gilbert led the Wildcats in the loss with 12 points while Miller had 10. Dee Ragland was held to just five points, the Lakers’ box-and-one defense limiting his looks throughout the entire contest.
While the season is over for Franklin-Simpson, Carson III hopes his Lakers continue to turn heads and defy low expectations like they did on Thursday night with the win over the Wildcats.
“We’re out to prove something,” Carson, III said. “The back of our warm-ups say ‘earn it’. I told them from the beginning of the year that whether it was playing time our respect they would have to earn it. We saw a poll that had us ranked eighth (in the regional tournament), and we were out to prove a point on (Thursday night).
