[GOREDDEVILS]

This game was an all out war. I attribute much of the bad shooting nights for both teams to some pretty intense defense. It's been a long time since I've seen a Russell-Greenup game with this much passion from both sides. It should be said that one of Greenup's top players, Trey Williams, was out for this game. I don't know why, but he sat behind the bench in warmups. Great effort from both sides, though. Any Russell-Greenup fans who stayed home tonight missed what a good rivalry game is all about.

Russell didn't seem to be able to generate many open looks at 3's. Their pressure defense was outstanding, though, and led to some nice baskets. Davidson has put on some muscle since last year and rebounded well under the basket. Greenup's Hampton, #44, is a terrific low post player. He scored 9 points in the 1st quarter, but then Russell shut him down. They were double and triple teaming him whenever he got the ball and no one else for Greenup stepped up to hit the big shots they needed. Both teams were less than stellar from the free throw line.

Overall, there is definitely a lot of room for improvement on both sides, but if these 2 teams bring this sort of intensity to the floor every night, then they will both give some of the top 16th region teams some battles this year.

Lastly, as for the near fight and the slew of technical fouls handed out, I just saw it as a good rivalry boiling over a little. Personally, I was just glad to see both teams wanted to win.

The score will end up the same imo because Russell isn't always going to shoot that bad and they have the hampton kid and williams and not much else.