Richland Northeast Quarterback Will Wilson Named the 2024 SC Mr. Football… In case you missed it, Richland Northeast quarterback Will Wilson was named Mr. Football for SC 2024… This season he threw for 2482 yards completing 66.7% of his passes… Twenty of his passes went for touchdowns… Oh by the way, he missed two games this season….. He has signed to play at NC State and was chosen for the Shrine Bowl but passed on that to go practice with NC State… For more on him and to find out who the other players in the running for the Mr. Football Award were, click here to go to an article about this in The State Newspaper.
Local Notes
Clinton HS
Basketball… The Red Devil varsity basketball teams hosted the Newberry Bulldogs in their last games before the Christmas break last night.
- Girls: Clinton 54 – Newberry 19… The Lady Red Devil basketball team pretty much had its way with the Bulldogs as they rolled to a 54-19 win over Newberry… The Red Devil defense held the Bulldogs to single-digit scoring in the first three quarters and the Bulldogs only scored 11 in the final quarter… The Red Devils led 27-4 at the half…Nah’shia Wright led the Red Devils with 15 points and Emma Patterson was also in double-digits with 11 points…. The team is now 7-1 on the season and will return to action this coming week end in a tournament down in the Charleston area.
- Boys: Clinton 75 – Newberry 54… In the last game of the day, the Red Devil boys’ team was also victorious by a score of 75 – 54… The Red Devils 46-22 and 60-34 going into the final quarter… It seems that Tushawan Richardson definitely has his basketball “touch” back in shape after leading the Red Devils to the Class AA State Championship as quarterback a couple of weeks ago as he had a game high 31 points… Devin Swindler was the only other Red Devil in double-digits as he had 17 points… The team will be back in action this coming weekend in a tournament down in the Charleston area.
Laurens HS
- Basketball: Up Next… Both the boys’ and girls’ team will next see action when they participate in tournaments after Christmas.
Laurens Academy
- Up Next… The master schedule for Crusader basketball shows that the varsity basketball teams will be traveling to Greenville to take on the Brashier Middle College teams on Friday, Jan. 3rd starting at 6:00 pm.
Thornwell
- Basketball… The schedule I have shows that the Saints boys’ basketball team will be playing Cambridge Academy Friday with time and location TBD
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…. 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… 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.
Bowl Schedule for Today 12-24-24… Click on the two teams involved for information on the games
Hawai’i Bowl: South Florida vs. San Jose State, 8:00 pm on ESPN from H Honolulu, Hawai’i
Bowl schedule for Yesterday 12-23-24… Click on the two teams involved for information on the games.
- Myrtle Beach Bowl: Coastal Carolina 15 vs. UTSA 44, 11:00 am on ESPN
- Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Northern Illinois 28 vs. Fresno State 20, 2:30 pm on ESPN
- 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:
- 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 (12-23-24) had some changes in the top 5… Tennessee is still #1 followed by Auburn, Iowa State, Duke (5) and Alabama (6)… Clemson dropped out of the top 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:
Youth Basketball at Laurens YMCA… Registration is now open for youth basketball at the Laurens Family YMCA… There are two age groupings: 3-4 and 5-6… Registration will be closing on Dec. 31st and practice starts Jan. 6th… For more information about this, click here to go to a posting on the Y’s website… You can also register there… For questions, please email hqueen@lakelandsymca.org
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.