An old rivalry was reborn last Tuesday night when the Jamestown Eagles and Russellville Indians met in Russellville for another showdown in boys basketball.
The two teams were playing each other for the second time this season. Russellville had defeated Jamestown 58-38 on Nov. 30 at the Tipton Tournament. With the help of their defense and contributions from everyone at one point or another, the Russellville Indians once again defeated Jamestown 67-50.
When the game began, both teams put on a 3-point scoring exhibition. Jamestown would hit their first three 3-point field goal attempts. Senior guard Chayce Klund hit two of those three 3-pointers, surprising Russellville head coach Greg Koetting. Jamestown had taken an early 9-3 lead. But the Indians would not be easily shaken. They would respond by going on a scoring run of their own.
Russellville would come back by ending the first quarter on a 13-6 run and took a 16-15 lead at the end of the first. But the run didn't end there. The Indians continued to get stops and put points on the board throughout the second half. With 2:25 remaining in the second quarter, Russellville had built a 12-point lead at 31-19. At this point, Russellville was now on a 28-10 run and had drastically changed the momentum of the game in their favor.
Things went from bad to worse for the Jamestown Eagles when freshman guard Tyler Wilson took a nasty fall in the second quarter while going for a shot block. It was a fall that severely injured his elbow. Wilson did not return, and the Eagles had to find a way to come back without him.
The Indians would go on to lead by as many as 13 points in the second quarter before Jamestown cut the lead to nine in the final seconds of the first half on a breakaway steal by Klund. Russellville took a 36-27 lead going in the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Russellville slowed the pace of the game and tried to use patience on offense to protect their lead. This strategy only worked to a certain extent, as Jamestown would get a string of stops themselves. But the difference in the second half was Jamestown was not able to go on a scoring run similar to what Russellville had in the first half.
Russellville took a 48-37 lead into the fourth quarter. Jamestown started out the fourth quarter by going to a zone defense. This move backfired when Russellville would use 1:14 of time on the clock on the possession and forced the Eagles to take a timeout. Even after they switched back to their man-to-man defense, Jamestown continued to struggle in getting consecutive stops.
With time running out, Eagles head coach Caleb Thomas changed strategy and had his team play to the foul game by having his team foul Russellville whenever they could. This strategy would preserve time and force the Indians to earn the rest of their points. Russellville would shoot 10-of-15 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Although Indians head coach Greg Koetting had to use four timeouts in the fourth quarter to keep his troops in line, Russellville held on to their lead and claimed a 67-50 victory over the Jamestown Eagles.
For the Indians, Charlie Miller, Chris Seaver and Jesse Daniel all had 13 points. Junior forward Bryce Bryant provided a spark of his own with 10 points off the bench.
For the Eagles, senior guard Evan Schoenthal led the way with 16 points and three assists. His twin brother Bradley had 10 points and Klund had 11 points himself.
Russellville shot 46 percent from the field, 33 percent in three-pointers (8-24), and 54 percent from the foul line (13-23). Russellville also won in rebounds 29-16 and assists 18-11. Jamestown shot 57 percent from the floor, 44 percent in threes (8-18), and 29 percent from the foul line (2-7). Russellville's record is now 6-9. Jamestown's record is now 5-8.
Russellville head coach Greg Koetting said his defense won the game by making the adjustments and the stops that they needed to prevent Jamestown from going on a big scoring run in the second half. Koetting said his team switched their coverages on their pick-and-roll defense, which proved to be one of the biggest components that were needed for Russellville to get the win.
"We switched on picks a lot," Koetting said. "We weren't doing that early in the year, but I think we realized that we didn't have that much size difference with them. So we started switching on picks. Every now and then, someone forgets or they don't want to and they fall down. But I think switching the pick and roll coverage on them helped. They didn't run a lot of pick-and-roll offense tonight. They mostly ran a flex offense, which we did a good job of defending."
Jamestown head coach Caleb Thomas, who was able to coach despite tearing his ACL last week, said his team was fully capable of defeating the Indians. Their biggest issues were turnovers, rebounds and playing four strong quarters.
"We're fully capable of playing with them," Thomas said. "We showed in the first quarter and the third quarter. We got them to the point where they didn't want to give us the basketball. Yet, we've struggled to play the way we can. We didn't make very good decisions sometimes when we had it. They are a very good man-to-man guarding team and they were allowed to be a good one tonight."
Russellville is currently taking part in the 60th Invitational Tournament at Iberia. After the tournament, they will be off for over a week before they come back to their home court to take on conference rival South Callaway.
Jamestown moves on to host the 15-1 Westran High School Hornets -- the No. 4 team in Class 2 according to the most recent Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll -- on Friday night. Then, the Eagles will play in a tournament of their own at the 41st Annual Slater Wildcat Classic beginning Monday.
Russellville senior Simon Hartman and junior Christopher Seaver share a celebratory bump after the latter is introduced into the Indians' starting lineup.
Jamestown senior forward Travis Barbour and Russellville junior guard jump up for the opening tip. Which was controlled by Miller and the Indians.
Eagles senior guard Bradley Schoenthal goes toe-to-toe with his defender before he drives past him. Schoenthal scored 10 points and dished out thee assists last Tuesday night.
Russellville junior forward Christopher Seaver steals the ball, finishes a breakaway layup, and drew the foul against Jamestown freshman Tyler Wilson. Seaver was one of three Indians to score 13 points against the Eagles.
Jamestown senior guard Chayce Klund gets a steal and converts a breakaway layup in the closing seconds of the first half. Klund scored 11 points last Tuesday night in Russellville.
Jamestown senior guard Chayce Klund (left) and Russellville senior guard Charlie Miller (right) box out each other as they go for a rebound in the third quarter.
Russellville senior forward Simon Hartman turns and scores over the smaller Jamestown defender Henry Hirschvogel.
Indians forward Alex Oligschlaeger dribbles past his defender on his way to the rim.
Jamestown senior forward Travis Barbour goes into the low post, turns and scores over Russellville forward Jake Schulte. Barbour had eight points and four rebounds last Tuesday night.
Jamestown junior guard Skylar Duncan fires and hit a three-pointer from the left corner in the fourth quarter.