Local Notes
Clinton HS
- Basketball: The Red Devils are hosted what they are called the Laurens County Showcase Saturday… Check below to see how the Laurens Academy Crusaders did.
- Girls: Clinton 63 – High Point Academy 19… The Red Devil Red Devils played the Red Devil Grizzlies of High Point Academy out of Spartanburg and they led 14-9 at the end of the first quarter and it only got worse for the Grizzlies as the Red Devils rolled to a 63-19 win… They led 26-15 at the half and held the Grizzlies to a single point in the third quarter in route to the win… The Red Devils had 4 players scoring in double-digits as Mylayja Thompson finished with a game-high 15 points while Emma Patterson finished with 14 points and both Kemaria Shelton and Bryanna Belton contributed 12 points each… McKenzie Clark scored 4 points while both Ja’Neshia Burton and Jakia Burton both scored 2 points… The Red Devil Red Devils improved to 10-2 on the season.
- Boys: High Points 68 – Clinton 64… The news is not as good where the Red Devil boys are concerned as they lost 68-64 in a hard-fought game to the Grizzlies… The Grizzlies came into the game with an 11-2 record with 2 close losses and about half their wins were by 20 points or more… The game was close all the way with the Grizzlies leading 35-34 at the half, 49-44 at the end of the third quarter and the Red Devils just could not catch up… The Red Devils were led in scoring by Tushawan Richardson’s game-high 21 points… Devin Swindler was also in double-digits with 14 points and Nyterian Smith scored 12 points… Kylen Calhoun scored 6 points, J’shon Nabors 5, Zy Butler 4 and Jared Willard 2… The Red Devils are now 4-4 on the season.
- Up Next… The Red Devils will be hosting the Walhalla Razorbacks today starting with girl’s action at 3:00 pm.
Laurens HS
- Boys: Laurens 57 – Mauldin 44… The Raider boys; basketball team was involved in a showcase Event at Grenville HS Saturday where they took on the Mauldin Mavericks the team Raider Coach Armond Flood was the assistant coach for just before he came to Laurens… Good news for Raider fans as the Raiders defeated the Mavericks 57-44… The Raiders led 14-6 after one quarter of play and 25-17 at the half… The Raiders came out of the locker room and outscored the Mavericks 23-15 in the third quarter with TyJ Jones scoring all but 4 of his game-high 18 points in that quarter… Z. Simpson scored 9 points for the Raiders, Quin Watts 8, Q. Anderson 7, DJ Martin 6Niger Brown and will Thompson 4 each, and Damyyo Watts 1… The Raiders are now 8-4 on the season.
- Up Next… The Raider varsity basketball teams will be hosting Southside tomorrow starting with girls’ action at 6:00 pm… We do plan on brining you those games on Real Radio WLBG and streaming live at www.wlbg.com.
Laurens Academy… The Laurens Academy Crusader varsity basketball teams were very busy over the weekend… On Friday they travelled to Brashier Middle College Bengals and on Saturday to Clinton HS to take on the Ware Shoals Hornets as part of the Laurens County Showcase.
- Friday Girls: Crusaders 33 – Bengals 31… This game was close throughout and the main thing you need to know here is that the Crusaders trailed by 1 points with seconds left in the game when Braylee Burke put up a 3-point shot which left here hand just before the final buzzer and it went in to lift the Crusaders to a 33-31 win over the Bengals… Burke scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Crusaders in the heart-stopping win… Mackenzie Runyans scored 6 points, Sadie Bruyere 5, Abby Howard 4 and Brooklyn Senn 2.
- Friday Boys: Grizzlies 65 – Crusaders 19… The news is not as good where the boys are concerned as they suffered through a poor shooting night and fell to the Bengals by a score of 65-19…. Braydon Burke led the Crusaders in scoring with 6 points… garrison Vaughn finished with 5 points, Garrett Murphy 4, Chesney Watkins 3 and Elijah Hornberger 1.
- Saturday Girls: Crusaders 47 – Hornets 19… The Red Devil Crusaders got off to a slow start in their game against the Red Devil Hornets on Saturday as they trailed 11-6 at the end of the first quarter but by halftime they led 21-14 and never looked back as they held the Hornets to just 5 points in the second half and cruised on to a 47-19 win… Sadie Bruyere led the Crusaders with 12 points and Braylee Burke was also in double digits with 10 points… Mackenzie Runyans contributed 7 points to the win, Brooklyn Senn and Taylor Gagle 4 each, Makayla Lindley and Brooke Abercrombie 3 each while Braydyn Dorn and Madisyn Graham scored 1 point each… The Red Devil Crusaders are now 7-3 on the season.
- Saturday Boys: Hornets 67 – Crusaders 34… Again on Saturday the Crusader boys had trouble getting their offense in gear as they fell to the Hornets 67 – 34… The Hornets only led 18-13 after 8 minutes of play but then held the Crusader scoring to single-digits in the three remaining quarters while they scored in double-digits in each of the remaining quarters… Brayden Burke was the only Crusader to score in double digits as he finished with 18 points… Micha strait scored 7 points for the Crusaders, Garrett Murphy 4, Garrison Vaughn 2 and rounding out the Crusader scoring both Chesney Watkins and Elijah Strait scored 1 point each… The Crusaders are now 4-7 on the season.
- Up Next… The Crusader will be traveling to King Academy tomorrow night for non-region games starting with girls at 6:00 pm.
Thornwell
- Basketball… The Thornwell Saints hosted the Ware Shoals Hornets in region basketball action last Friday night.
- Girls: Hornets 44 – Saints 29… The Hornets outscored the Saints 12-2 in the first quarter and then went on to take a 44-29 win over the scrappy Saints… The Saints only trailed 19-15 at the half and cut the Hornet lead to 3 points (21-19) early in the third quarter but could get no closer as the Hornets outscored them 13-5 in the final 8 minutes to take the win… The Hornets Stella Eichhorn led all scorers with 23 points most of them in the first and fourth quarters…Aly Jeter was the only Saint scoring in double-digits as she finished with 17 points… Both Kynli English and Kelyn Spurgeon finished with 4 points each while Kendra Wilson and Graycen Moore scored 2 points each… The Red Devil Saints are now 3-5 overall and 2-4 in region play
- Boys: Hornets 59 – Saints 47… The news is also not good for Saints fans where the boys are concerned as the Hornets took a 59-47 win… The Hornets led 23-21 at the half and the Saints came back to take a 35-28 lead early in the third quarter but the Hornets cut the Saints lead to one (37-36) at the end of the third quarter… The 3.5 minutes of the fourth quarter saw the Saints offense go cold as the Hornets scored 15 unanswered points to take a 51-37 lead putting the Saints in a hole they just could not get out of… The Hornets had 4 players scoring in double-digits and were led by Jayce Medlin’s 15 points… The Saints were led in scoring by Zalen Washington who had a game-high 20 points and Keilaud Singleton who finished with 18 points… Jacob Wilson scored 4 points, Parker Workman 3 and Kemonie Pitts 2… The team is now 2-7 overall and 1-5 in region play.
- 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 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.
- 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.)
o Thursday, Jan. 9: College Football Playoff Semifinal Game (Orange Bowl), 7:30 p.m. | ESPN, No. 4 Penn State vs. No. 5 Notre Dame, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida
o Friday, Jan. 10: College Football Playoff Semifinal Game (Cotton Bowl), No. 3 Texas vs. No. 6 Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. | ESPN, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
- 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 Poll… The latest AP Top 25 Poll (12-30-24) had no changes in the top 5… Tennessee is still #1 followed by Auburn, Iowa State, Duke and Alabama … 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 (12-30-24) also had no changes in the top 5…UCLA is still #1 followed by South Carolina, Notre Dame, UConn 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:
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.