Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

LUCASVILLE — It was quite a day for Kaci Russell. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for her teammates.

While her teammates suffered a cold shooting night, Russell poured in a career-high 36 points but the Rock Hill Redwomen lost 62-46 to the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors on Saturday in the Division III sectional finals.

“We started off OK, but then the shots wouldn’t fall for anyone except Kaci. Anna Darby has been great all year, but she was suffering from the affects of the flu,” said Rock Hill coach Greg Damron.

“Russell was aggressive with the ball. She had a great game. But Eastern has some good size and we’re small. Eastern is a good basketball team. They were very good fundamentally.”

Eastern took a 16-12 first quarter lead with Russell scoring six points.

Russell had all of Rock Hill’s points in the second quarter as Eastern outscored the Redwomen 18-6 to take a 34-18 halftime lead.

The Redwomen sliced the lead to 47-32 in the third quarter as Russell scored 12 points.

It was Russell again in the fourth quarter as she scored 12 more points and Rock Hill outscored Eastern 14-11 only to see their comeback bid fall short.

Allison Day had 12 points and Whitney Broughton nine to lead Eastern.

The Redwomen finish the season 14-9, their first winning season since 2004.

“The girls had a good year. We have to figure out a way to replace Russell and Dillon. They are both good leaders,” said Damron.

Rock Hill 12 6 14 14 = 46

E. Brown 16 18 13 11 = 62

ROCK HILL (14-9): Jill Hairston 1 0 0-0 2, Taylor Hall 0 0 0-0 0, Anna Darby 2 0 0-0 4, Caitlyn Meadows 0 0 0-0 0, Sami Dillon 1 0 2-2 4, Abbi Kline 0 0 0-0 0, Kaci Russell 10 3 7-8 36. Totals: 14 3 9-10 48. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.

EASTERN BROWN (NA): Maggie Fultz 0 2 0-0 6, Molly Prine 1 1 1-3 6, Whitney Broughton 4 0 1-2 9, Jessee Sowers 1 0 0-0 2, Abby Fultz 2 0 0-0 4, Morgan Reynolds 0 0 0-0 0, Allison Day 5 0 2-3 12, Taylor Stamper 3 0 0-0 6, Makayla Farris 7 0 3-4 17. Totals: 23 3 7-12 64. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.