Sports Report for Wednesday, 1-8-2025

Local Notes 

Clinton HS

    • Up Next… The Red Devils basketball teams will be traveling to Fairfield Central this Friday night (1-10-25) as they open region play.

Laurens HS

  • Varsity Basketball… The Raiders opened region play last night hosting the Southside Tigers… Good news for Raider fans as both Raider teams took wins!
    • Girls: Laurens 44 – Southside 29… The Lady Raiders opened the game taking a 16-3 lead after 8 minutes of play and then went on to take a 44-29 win… The Raiders played a great first half of basketball rebounding well, having few turnovers and running their offense so that they had a27-11 lead at the half… They did have a few more turnovers in the second have when compared to the first half but still outplayed to Tigers… The Raiders were led in scoring by Zoe Young who finished with 16 points several of them coming on offensive rebounds she put back in… she also had a least 4 blocked shots… Nyri Allen finished with 8 points, Ty Jones and both Keyorie Yeargin had 7 each, Alayiah Carter 3 and rounding out the Raider scoring both A’nyah McBeth and Gabby Wormley each scored 2… The team is now 8-16 overall and 1-0 in region play
    • Boys: Laurens 70 – Southside 49… The Raider boys also opened region play with a win as they defeated the Tigers 70-49… They also played a good first half of basketball rebounding well, running a patient offense and keeping their turnovers down to a minimum to lead 41-18 at the half… The second half saw the play get a little more carless but they still maintained their lead and played the subs the last few minutes of the game… The Raiders were led in scoring by TyJ Jones who finished with a game-high 16 points and Zee Simpson was also in double digits with 13 points Q. Watts 12 and Will Thompson 10… DJ Martin finished with 7 points, Damyyo Watts 6, Trendon Brown 2, Nigere Brown 2, Hikeem Burnside 2 and Hunter Richardson 1… The Raiders are now 9-4 on the season and 1-0 in region play.
    • Up Next… The Raider varsity basketball teams will be traveling to Wren HS Friday night weather permitting.

 

  • Wrestling
    • Wrestling at Home Tonight… The Raider wrestling team will host the Emerald Vikings tonight in their last home match of the season with action starting at 7:00 pm…. The Red Devil wrestling schedule shows that they will be there also, not sure about that.
    • Wrestling This Past Weekend… This past weekend the Raider wrestling team travelled to Rock Hill to participate in the Bearcat Invitational… There were 46 teams from all classes and the Raiders finished a very respectable 11th…Indian Land finished first with 179.5 points to the Raiders 120.5… Dakota McCall finished 2nd in the 144-pound weight class to lead the Raiders. 

Laurens Academy

  • Crusaders on the Road…  The Crusaders traveled to King Academy last night to take on the Knights n non-region games.
    • Girls: Crusaders 48 – Knights 14… In varsity girls’ action, the Lady Crusaders outscored the Knights 15-2 in the first quarter and then rolled on to a 48-14win… The Crusader defense held the Knight to just 2 points in 2 of the quarters… Braylee Burke continues to be a team leader as she scored a game-high 16 points last night and Sadie Bruyere also scored in double-digits with 10 points… Mackenzie Runyans 7, Brooklyn Senn 3 and rounding out the Crusader scoring Caroline Robinson, Braydyn Dorn, Abby Howard, Brooke Abercrombie, Caroline Mullinax, and Madisyn Graham all finished with 2 points… The team is now 8-3 overall… MS Girls… The news is not as good where the Middle school girls are concerned as they fell to the Knights by a score of 37-11.
    • Boys: Crusaders 43 – King ??? … Now due to a technical problem I cannot tell you the score of the boys’ game… I do know that the Crusaders scored 43 points with Brayden Burke scoring 17 points but I DO NOT know how many points the Knights scored…. Less than 43 I hope… I’ll try to get the needed information on the Knights and update this tomorrow.

Thornwell

  • Basketball
    • Up Next… According to the schedule on MaxPreps, the Saints will travel to McCormick this Friday (1-10-25) for more region games.

Middle School Basketball… All games start at 5:00 pm unless otherwise noted with girls’ game first followed by boys’ game… Note: coaches very often change schedule without telling me… To see the season master schedule click hereNOTE…Dixie and Thornwell do NOT have middle school girls teams this season so the 5:00 pm start will be for the boys’ game…. There are no games until after the Christmas break.


Laurens County Touchdown Club   

  • TD Club Announces All County Team… Wednesday (12-18-24) the Laurens County Touchdown Club released the names of the 30 football players who made the All-County Team for 2024… The Red Devils have 17 players on the team, the Raiders 7 and the Crusaders 6… If you would like to see the complete list of players who made the team, their position and school, click here… Also on the list are the names of the four players who won the Lakelands FCA Charter Award for each of the three high schools and Presbyterian College… Finally the names of the 3 players who have been nominated for the Player of the Year Award were released… In alphabetical order they are: Garrett Murphy (LA), Tushawan Richardson (CHS) and Javaye Suber (LDHS)… The All County Team will be honored at the Annual Awards Banquet on Wednesday, 1-8-25 at The Ridge starting at 6:00 pm… Look below for more information about that… Also at that time, the Player of the Year and Coach of the Year will be named.

 

  • Information about Brian Mance… The featured speaker at the Awards Banquet will be Brian Mance… He is a former Clemson football great…  Mance was named the 2023 South Carolina Football Hall of Fame “Humanitarian of the Year…. If you would like to read more about him and his struggle to overcome physical problems, click here.

Local Sports Schedules: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.

  • School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
  • School District 56:  To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
  • Laurens Academy: Click on each of the following to see their schedule: Basketball…. Also you can click on the following to see their schedule on MaxPreps: Varsity Girls and Varsity Boys.… You can also click here to see the master basketball schedule for the Crusade teams.    .
  • Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell varsity basketball schedules and results click on one of the following: Varsity Girls, Boys… Also Master Schedule that includes middle school games click here.
  • PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.



College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available. 

  • Four Teams Left in College Playoffs… College Football Playoffs are now to just 4 teams… They are #4 Penn State, #5 Notre Dame, #3 Texas and #6 Ohio State… Later this week that will be cut to 2 teams remaining… The Football Semifinal games are as follows: (click on each matchup for more information about each game.)

 

  • 2024-25 College Football Playoff Bracket The four teams that will get a bye in the first round of the college football playoffs due to the fact they are the 4 highest rankings of the five major football conferences that won their college conference are Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State… To see the entire playoff bracket click here.

 

  • 2024-25 Entire College Football Bowl Schedule & Information… After the selection Committee filled out the College Playoff Brackets other teams were quickly chosen for the myriad of bowl games that are going to be held between now and the National Championship game on Monday, Jan. 20th next year… If you click here, you will go to a posting on the NCAA website where the list of bowls is posted along with when they will be held, times, TV availability and after they are over the final score.

College Basketball… In the polls the number in parenthesis (?) indicates their rank in the last poll if it is different from the present one… If there is a score given or game(s) click on it to see details on the game(s).

Men

  • DI AP PollThe latest AP Top 25 Poll (1-6-25) had no changes in the top 5… Tennessee is still #1 followed by Auburn, Iowa State, Duke and Alabama … There were some changes in spots 6-10 as Kentucky (10) is now #6 followed by Marquette (8), Florida (6), UConn (11) and Texas A&M (13)…To see the remainder of the top 25 click here.
  • DI ScoresTo see the scores foe last night and also for the previous couple of days click here… You can also look ahead to the next few days to see who will be playing.
  • Standings by ConferenceTo see the conference standings for each of the DI conferences, click here… It’s a long list so if you want to see say the SEC standings, you have to scroll down a good bit.

 

Women

  • DI AP Poll The latest AP Top 25 Poll (1-6-25) also had no changes in the top 5…UCLA is still #1 followed by South Carolina, Notre Dame, UConn and LSU (4)… LSU checked in at #6 followed by UConn, Maryland, Ohio State (10) and Oklahoma (9)… To see the remainder of the top 25 click here.
  • DI ScoresTo see the scores foe last night and also for the previous couple of days click here… You can also look ahead to the next few days to see who will be playing.
  • Standings by ConferenceTo see the conference standings for each of the DI conferences, click here… It’s a long list so if you want to see say the SEC standings, you have to scroll down a good bit.



Pro SportsFor more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores at the start of the section.

 NFL

  • Schedules and Scores… For you diehard pro football fans out there if you want to check scores or schedules in the NFL click here… Once you go to this posting on the NFL site you can filter by the week you are interested in.
  • Standings… If you are also curious about the NFL standings, click here,



This & That:

 

 

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.