The Todd County Central boys’ basketball team held visiting Russellville to its second-lowest point output of the season on Thursday night, but the cold-shooting Rebels also found points hard to come by in a 45-33 loss to the Panthers.
Russellville put the brakes on a three-game skid and completed the regular-season sweep of the Rebels, who dropped their fourth-straight.
Early on it didn’t appear the Rebels would struggle to put points on the board and they led 6-2 after a putback by Preston Rager. However, they wouldn’t score again over the final 3:25 and trailed 9-6 after one quarter.
The Panthers doubled-up the Rebels at 16-8 after a 3-pointer by Layne Steele and took their first double-digit lead after a Steele layup a short time later. Preston Moore converted an and-1 with less than :30 to play in the half and the Rebels were within 8 at 23-15 at the break.
Todd Central took four charges over the first four minutes of the second half, climbing back to within 4 points after a pair of free throws by Amari Andrews. But two free throws would be all the offense they could muster over the remainder of the quarter and the Panthers restored their 8-point cushion to start the fourth.
The Rebels twice got to within 6 over the last eight minutes, with the second time coming after 5-straight points for Moore with 1:52 to play. Chevis Elliott knocked down 4-straight free throws to restore the Panthers’ 10-point edge before Rager connected for the Rebels’ only 3 of the game with just over a minute left. Russellville outscored Todd Central 5-1 the rest of the way, going 5/6 at the line.
Russellville 9 14 6 16 — 45
Todd Central 6 9 6 12 — 33
Russellville (6-6) — Todd 12, Ries 10, Allen 9, Elliott 7, Steele 5, Hampton 2
Todd Central (3-10) — Moore 14, Andrews 5, M. Johnson 5, A. Johnson 5, Rager 4
