Local Notes
Clinton HS
Basketball
- Up Next… The Red Devil MaxPreps schedule shows that the varsity teams will be hosting Newberry next Monday… Go Big Red!
Laurens HS
Basketball
- Up Next… If you have a Raider basketball schedule it shows that the Raiders are scheduled to host the Greenwood Eagles in varsity action tonight… Those games have been canceled and will not be played… Both the boys and girls team will next see action when they participate in tournaments after Christmas.
Laurens Academy
- Up Next… The schedule I have shows the Crusader boys team participating in a tournament in Newberry starting tonight as they take on Wardlaw at 7:30 and tomorrow taking on Newberry at noon… The Lady Crusader will travel to Greer Middle College for an 11:30 am game tomorrow.
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… The results from yesterday’s game that I have are:
- Laurens Middle at GCO
- Girls: LMS 38 – GCO 16… In the girls’ game, the LMS Tigers used their speed and height to hold the GCO Tigers to single digits in each of the four quarters as they took a 38-16 win over the GCO Tigers… LMS led 21-5 at the half and continued that pace to take the win… LMS was led by Nizeria Jones who had 19 points and Aijiah Crooks who finished with 12… For GCO, Koziah Smith was the only player in double-digits as she finished with 10 points.
- Boys: LMS 43 – GCO 29… The boys’ game was different in that GCO led 18-12 at the half but LMS held them to just 11 points in the second half while LMS scored 31 to take a 43-29 win… Elijah Bryson and Wells Rhodes both had 12 points for the LMS Tigers while Wesley Collins was the only GCO Tiger to score in double-digits with 15 points… Thanks to Jerry Filbin for information on these games!
- HT at Thornwell
- Boys: Thornwell 23 – HT 10… Sorry no scoring detail and there was no girls’ game.
- Sanders at Ware Shoals… No score reported. Please ask coaches to do so.
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… 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… 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 8th 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.
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.
Bowl Schedule for this Weekend… Click on the two teams involved for more information
Friday, Dec. 20
- Cure Bowl: Ohio vs. Jacksonville State, 12 p.m. | ESPN, Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida
- Gasparilla Bowl: Florida vs. Tulane, 3:30 p.m. | ESPN, ,Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida
- College Football Playoff First Round Game: No. 8 Indiana at No. 5 Notre Dame, 8 p.m. | ABC/ESPN
South Bend, Indiana
Saturday, Dec. 21
- College Football Playoff First Round Game, No. 10 SMU at No. 4 Penn State, 12 p.m. | TNT/MAX
University Park, Pennsylvania - College Football Playoff First Round Game: No. 16 Clemson at No. 3 Texas, 4 p.m. | TNT/MAX
Austin, Texas - College Football Playoff First Round Game: No. 7 Tennessee at No. 6 Ohio State, 8 p.m. | ABC/ESPN, Columbus, Ohio
- 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… 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
- 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. 21st at Texas taking on the Longhorns.
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 noon… The kickoff is scheduled for shortly after noon… At the half time 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.
- AAU Basketball Tryouts… Show out Elite is looking for players in the 7th and 8th grades to fill out an AAU Basketball Team… Tryouts will be tomorrow (12-21-24) in the gym at Gray Court Owings School…The time is from 10:00 am until noon… Come ready to play in comfortable clothes and basketball shoes… If you have questions or want more information call o text Coach Jerry Filbin at 864-586-9059… You can also email him at showoutathletics@gmail.com.
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.