Russellville turned up the heat on Siloam Springs in the second quarter of Tuesday's girls basketball game, and the Lady Panthers didn't have an answer.
The Lady Cyclones outscored the Lady Panthers 28-8 in the quarter to take a commanding lead in what would be a 63-41 victory inside Panther Activity Center.
Trailing 9-5 after the first quarter, Siloam Springs got a pair of quick buckets from Brooklyn Buckminster and Hadlee Hollenback to pull within 11-9 of the Lady Cyclones with 7 minutes, 22 seconds left in the quarter.
It all went downhill from there. Led by 14 points in the second quarter by guard Cara Davis, the Lady Cyclones ended the quarter on a 26-4 run to take a 37-13 lead at halftime.
"We played scared in my opinion," said Siloam Springs head coach Tim Rippy. "I thought we didn't attack aggressively early in the ballgame. We committed some silly turnovers. We showed no indication early in the game that we were going to have a performance like that. I felt like we were ready to go."
The Lady Panthers showed a little life in the second half, where they outscored Russellville 28-26, but the damage had already been done.
"I don't know. I didn't have the answer tonight," Rippy said. "Obviously we tried a lot of different things and couldn't seem to get it going in the right direction.
"The positive was we continued to fight obviously. We won the second half by a bucket, but you can't dig yourself a hole like we did and then expect to get a win."
Morgan Vaughn scored 15 points to lead Siloam Springs, while Chloe Price had eight, Jael Harried six, Hollenback and Buckminster both with four and Kenlie Noel and Shelby Johnson two each.
Davis finished with 29 points for the Lady Cyclones.
Russellville (9-8) improved to 4-0 in 5A/6A District 1 play with the win with victories over Alma, Clarksville, Harrison. The Lady Cyclones played at Farmington on Friday night.
"We've just got to play," said Russellville head coach Sherry White. "We weren't making plays early in the year, and it looked like we were doing a lot of thinking. I think these last three to four games have been our best games of the year. Of course they should be getting better. It's working that way right now.
"There was a time we were 2-7, I think. Now we're 9-8. So they've just really gotten closer and everything's clicking."
Russellville 63, Siloam Springs 41
Russellville^9^28^16^10^--^63
Siloam Springs^5^8^17^11^--^41
Russellville: Davis 29, McCallister 8, Rhode 7, Shields 6, Murphy 5, Meyers 4, Ealy 4.
Siloam Springs: Vaughn 15, Price 8, Harried 6, Hollenback 4, Buckminster 4, Noel 2, Johnson 2.
Sports on 01/21/2018