Sports Report for Tuesday, 12-17-2024

Local Notes

Clinton HS

Basketball… The CHS athletic website calendar shows the Red Devil varsity teams will be hosting the Emerald Vikings tonight for a doubleheader of basketball action starting at 6:00 pm.

Laurens HS

Basketball
- The Raider varsity basketball teams traveled to Greenwood last night for a double-header of girls’ and boys’ basketball against the Eagles.
  - Boys: Laurens 59 – Greenwood 54… The boys’ team took a close 59-54 win over the Eagles… The two teams were tied 14-14 at the end of the first quarter and then the Raiders had a 24-23 lead at the half and continued to outscore the Eagles by 4 points in the second half to secure the win… Sorry no scoring details at this time… The Raiders improve to 5-3 on the young season.
  - Girls: Greenwood 53 – Laurens 29… The news is not as good where the girls are concerned as they had trouble getting the offense going last night as the Eagles took a 53-29 win…. The Eagles outscored the Raiders 16-4 in the first quarter and held the Raiders to single-digits in every quarter but the last where the Raiders scored 14 points but the Eagles scored 17 in the quarter… Sorry no scoring details at this time… The Raiders fall to 4-4 on the young season.
- The Raider JV basketball teams hosted the Greenwood Eagles last night.
  - Girls: Greenwood 25 – Laurens 6… All I have on this game and it’s not good news for Raider fans as the team fell to the Eagles by a score of 25-6… The team is still looking for its first win on the season.
  - Boys… No one reported this score to me.

Laurens Academy… Last night the Laurens Crusader basketball teams hosted the Newberry Eagles except for the varsity girls that hoisted the Abbeville Panthers.

Boys: Eagles 36 – Crusaders 11… A slow start in the first quarter where the Eagles outscored the Crusaders 12-0 and continued to outscore the Crusaders by at least 4 points in each of the remaining quarters except the second tells the story of this game as the Eagles took a 36-11 win… Braydon Burke led the Crusaders in scoring with 5 points.
Girls: Crusaders 38 – Panthers 15… The news is better where the girls are concerned as the Crusaders took a 38-15 win over the Panthers… They held the Panthers scoreless in the first quarter while they put 15 points on the board and then outscored them in every quarter but the last where the Panthers outscored them 9-6 but it was too little, too late… Brooklyn Senn led the Crusaders with 9 points while both Taylor Cagle and Braylee Burke finished with 8 points each.
Middle School Scores… In middle school action, the Crusader girls fell to the Newbery Eagles by a score of 18-6 with Lorelai Bagwell, Lille Jones and Daphne Strait each scoring 2 points… In boys’ action, the Crusaders took a 31-28 coming back in the fourth quarter and outscoring the Eagles 12-8 to take the come-from-behind win… Mason Snider finished with 12 points leading the Crusaders and Elias Littleton was close behind with 9.

Thornwell

Basketball… Last night the Thornwell Saints traveled up to the Simpsonville area to take on the Owls of Green Upstate… I only have the scores and no scoring details… In girls action the Saints took a 30-26 win and in boys action the Owls took a come-from-behind 55-51 win over the Saints

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 here… NOTE…Dixie and Thornwell do NOT have middle school girls teams this season so the 5:00 pm start will be for the boys’ game…. Middle school schedule for today:

GCO at Dixie… There was only a boy’s game and Dixie Hornets took a 25-11 win over the GCO Tigers.
Whitmire at HT… In girls’ action, the Panthers took an exciting 27-25 win over the Wolverines but the boys lost to the Wolverines by a score of 26-14… No scouring details on either.
Ware Shoals at LMS
- Boys: LMS 46 – Ware Shoals 29… The LMS Tigers took a 46-29 win over the Ware shoals Hornets… They only led 20-17 at the half but their offense heated up while the defense continued to hold the Hornets in checks as they rolled to the win…. Logan Bragg led the Tigers with 14 points and Jaylen Dendy finished with 10 points.
- Girls: LMS 49 – Ware Shoals 21…In girls’ action, the Tigers led 19-5 at the end of the first quarter and continued that pace as they took a 49-21 win over the Hornets… They were just too tall for the Hornets and the Hornets really had trouble on the free throw line and thus could not get the game any closer… N. Jones led the Tigers with 30 points while A. Crooks finished with 15 points.
Thornwell vs. Sanders… No score reported to me… Please ask the coaches to do so in the future.

Laurens County Touchdown Club

If you would like to see information about the Laurens County Touchdown Club such as how to join, meeting dates, sponsors and guest speakers click here.… The Club’s next meeting which is the Annual Awards Banquet will be on Wednesday, January 8^th at The Ridge… The featured speaker for the January 8th Annual Awards Banquet will be former Clemson football great Brian Mance… Mance was named the 2023 South Carolina Football Hall of Fame “Humanitarian of the Year…”The TD Club will recognize its All-County team selection as well as Coach of the Year, Player of the Year and the Lakeland’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes Character award winners from each High School as well as Presbyterian College.
The Laurens County Touchdown Club last meeting was on Thursday, 11-21-24. In addition to honoring the three latest Players of the Week and hearing from the local high school and college coaches, it was the annual Clemson-Carolina Meeting. The guest speakers were Don Munson the Voice of the Clemson Tigers and Chet Tucker Sideline Reporter for the Gamecocks. Click here to see a video of that meeting followed by a few pictures taken at the meeting. .

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.

College Football… In the polls the number in parenthesis (?) indicates their rank in the last poll if it is different from the present one.

College Football Playoff Rankings…. The final College Football Rankings came out on 12-11-24 and these are the rankings that will be used to seed the 12 teams that make the FBS Playoffs at the end of the year… They follow the AP Poll closely but not exactly… The first 5 teams in order are Oregon, Georgia (5), Texas (2), Penn State (3) and Notre Dame (4)… Spots 6 – 10 are held by Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana (9), Boise State (10) and SMU (8)… Spots 11 and 15 are occupied by Alabama (11), Arizona State (15), Miami (12), Ole Miss (13) and South Carolina (14)… Clemson moved up t0 #16 from #17… To see the list of the entire top 25 in the in the Playoff Rankings click here… NOTE: Now due to certain rules for automatic placements into the playoffs, Clemson did make it into the playoffs but South Carolina did not (see below)… Other teams that did not make the playoffs ranked in the top 15 are Alabama, Miami and Ole Miss

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… Clemson will open play on Saturday, Dec. 21^st at Texas taking on the Longhorns.

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 that are going to be held between now and the National Championship game on Monday, Jan. 20^th 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… The bowls will start this Saturday (12-14-24) with south Carolina State taking on Jackson State in the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta (noon on ABC)… Other bowls in South Carolina or involving team from South Carolina include,:
- Myrtle Beach Bowl, Monday, 12-23, Costal Carolina vs. UTSA, 2:30 pm on ESPN
- Citrus Bowl, Tuesday, 12-31, #15 South Carolina vs. #20 Illinois in Orlando, 3:00 pm on ABC
FBS Football Scores… If you would like to see the scores for FBS schools this past week click here… Once you get there you can filter and sort several different ways and you can also click on the next week to see the FBS schedule..
FCS Playoffs… The FCS playoffs are underway and have been since Dec.7^th… There are no teams from South Carolina involved and the closest team to our area is Mercer… To see the bracket and scores as the games are finished, click here.

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 Poll… The latest AP Top 25 Poll (12-16-24) one change in the top 5… Tennessee is still #1 followed by Auburn, Iowa State then Kentucky moves up a spot to #4 while Duke drops a spot to #5… Clemson dropped from #16 to #25… To see the remainder of the top 25 click here.
DI Scores… To 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 Conference… To 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 (12-16-24) had a couple of changes in the top 5…UCLA is still #1but South Carolina moved from #3 to #2… The rest of the top 5 are Notre Dame (8), UConn (2) and LSU (4)…To see the remainder of the top 25 click here.
DI Scores… To 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 Conference… To 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 Sports: For 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:

WLBG will be carrying the Touchstone Energy Bowl this Saturday (12-21-24) starting with pregame activities at 11:30 am… The kickoff is scheduled for shortly after noon… At the half of the game, they will be announcing Mr. Football 2024… As a reminder the Red Devils Cal Pitts will be one of the participants on the North Squad.

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.