Butler vs. Russellville

Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center – Birmingham, AL

Butler holds off Russellville to win Class 5A Crown

The Eason & Ervin Show combined for 38.

Jermaine Bates and Ralph Eason get into a little tug-of-war.

Butler took an early 7-1 lead as Eason and Ervin both scored. Russellville got off to a slow start but came around towards the end of the first quarter getting a three-pointer from Jordan Hammond and a pair of baskets from Jermaine Bates to cut the lead to 16-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Russellville ran off 5 quick points at the start of the second quarter to take their first lead of the game 17-16. The game see-sawed back and forth for a few minutes as the teams exchanged baskets. A lay-up by Ervin put the Rebels back in front 20-17 with just over 3:00 minutes left in the half.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Russellville (Cory Tripp and Jemaireous Chandler) helped the Golden Tigers retake the lead 23-20 but a 7-0 run spearheaded by a buzzer beater by Ervin gave Butler a 27-23 halftime lead. 

Ervin continued to find room in the paint scoring a quick basket as the third quarter got underway. A sweet fastbreak move by Eason put the Rebels up 32-23 with 5:35 left in the quarter. A few minutes later

The Eason & Ervin Show continued to take top billing as they scored back-to back hoops to give the Rebels their largest lead of the game 46-33.

Russellville's Terence Smith pushes the bal up court against Butler's Justin Pride

Eason finished with 19 points and 12 boards to earn MVP and All-Tournament honors. Teammates Trevor Lacey and Ryan Ervin were also named to the All-tournament Team along with Russellville’s Jermaine Bates and Jordan Hammond. The selection committee missed that last selection. Hammond finished the game with just 6 points before fouling out. That last selection should have been Terence Smith who scored a game high 20 points while grabbing 11 rebounds for Russellville…”Washington, they forgot to get my ballot”

The Final Score: Butler 66 – Russellville 59

All-Tournament Team (from l-r) Ryan Ervin, Trevor Lacey, Ralph Eason, Jermaine Bates and Jordan Hammond.

Scoring Recap

	Russellville		3-pt		Rebounds
No.	Player	p	fgm-fga	fgm-fga	ftm-fta	off-def	tot	pf	tp	a	to	blk	stl
02	Bates, Jermaine	*	6-14	1-4	3-4	2-3	5	4	16	2	2	2	2
03	Smith, Terence	*	8-14	1-4	3-8	3-8	11	4	20	4	3	0	3
04	Winston, Siran	*	2-8	0-2	3-3	1-2	3	5	7	2	3	0	2
10	Trapp, Cory	*	1-12	1-12	2-3	0-0	0	3	5	0	3	1	0
14	Hammond, Jordan	*	2-3	2-3	0-0	2-1	3	5	6	1	0	0	0
05	Johnson, Chase	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	McCulloch, Micah	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-1	1	4	0	1	1	0	0
15	Ramirez, Yovanni	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
30	Dunstan, Nate	-	2-5	0-0	1-2	3-6	9	4	5	0	2	2	0
32	Hammock, Tucker	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Team Totals:	-	21-56	5-25	12-20	12-24	36	29	59	10	15	5	7
	Butler		Total	3-pt		Rebounds
No.	Player	p	fgm-fga	fgm-fga	ftm-fta	off-def	tot	pf	tp	a	to	blk	stl
02	CHANDLER,Jermaireous	*	4-8	0-0	1-3	0-3	3	1	9	2	3	0	3
03	PRIDE,Justin	*	0-0	0-0	1-4	0-1	1	4	1	2	2	0	1
05	LACEY,Trevor	*	2-8	0-3	8-13	2-6	8	0	12	3	3	0	0
10	ERVIN,Ryan	*	9-14	0-0	1-2	4-2	6	4	19	2	0	1	1
23	EASON,Ralph	*	5-11	0-0	9-10	2-10	12	4	19	2	1	0	0
04	JOHNSON,Luther	-	0-0	0-0	0-2	0-1	1	2	0	1	0	0	0
12	STEELE,Charles	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	BROOKS,Kevin	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22	JONES,Dallas	-	1-5	1-3	1-4	1-1	2	1	4	2	4	0	3
30	CLAYBORN,Carlos	-	0-1	0-0	2-2	2-1	3	2	2	1	1	0	0
	Team Totals:	-	21-47	1-6	23-40	13-27	40	18	66	15	14	1	8