Russell has enjoyed the comforts of home their last three games, but now they'll head out on the road. They will take on the Spring Valley Timberwolves in a holiday battle at 4:45 p.m. on Friday at. Russell knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past five games -- so hopefully Spring Valley likes a good challenge.
Russell pushed their score all the way to 58 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. The contest between Russell and Fleming County wasn't particularly close, with Russell falling 72-58. While losing is never fun, Russell can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Kentucky basketball rankings (they are ranked 152nd, while Fleming County is ranked 26th).
Despite the defeat, Russell saw an underclassman step up: Caleb Rimmer dropped a double-double on 23 points and 15 rebounds. Those 23 points set a new season-high mark for him. Another player making a difference was Elijah Neel, who scored 14 points.
Meanwhile, Spring Valley unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Saturday. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 65-64 to Knott County Central. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Tate Adkins, who scored 26 points. The matchup was his fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Harrison Riggs, who scored 20 points.
Russell now has a losing record at 2-3. As for Spring Valley, their loss ended a three-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 3-1.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's match: Russell have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 6.2 threes per game. It's a different story for Spring Valley, though, as they've been averaging only 4.8 threes per game. Given Russell's sizeable advantage in that area, Spring Valley will need to find a way to close that gap. Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other basketball content.
