Local Notes
SCHSL Basketball Brackets… If you would like to see all the brackets for the South Carolina High School League for all the classifications both boys and girls, click here…. NOTE… For all SCHSL playoff games, the tickets will cost $8 each and anyone over the age of two must have a ticket to enter… The only passes that will be accepted are SCHSL passes… No school issued passes of any type will be accepted.
Clinton HS
- Girls Basketball: Red Devils 49 – Cardinals 19… The Lady Red Devils hosted the Lady Cardinals of Landrum last night in second round action of the SCHSL Class AA Playoffs… Good news for Red Devil fans as they took a dominating 49-19 win over the Cardinals… The Red Devils led 16-8 after 8 minutes of play and 22-12 at the half and were never really threatened after that… The Cardinals who had seen mostly zone defenses during the regular season simply had trouble with the Red Devils sticky man-to-man defense… They committed twice the number of turnovers in the first half than Clinton thus giving the Red Devils more opportunities to score…The Red Devils dominated the defensive boards in the second half thus giving the Cardinals very few second chances at the basket… The Red Devils were led in scoring by McKenzie Clark who finished with a game-high 16 points and Bryanna Belton was also in double-digits with 11 points 9 of which came from behind the 3-point each… Others scoring for the Red Devils included Ry’Daijia Mars and Mylayja Thompson who scored 5 points each, Kemaria Shelton 4, and both Symiah Floyd and Nah’shia Wright finished with 2 points each.
- Up Next… Next Tuesday at 6:00 pm the Red Devils will be hosting region foe Fairfield Central that defeated Cheraw 75-59 last night
- Boys Basketball: The Red Devils will be traveling to High Point Academy to take on the Grizzlies at 6:00 pm tonight… The Red Devils come into the game with a 14-8 overall record while the Grizzlies are 24-3 on the season… The two teams met once this season with High Point taking a narrow 68-64 win.
Laurens HS
- Four Sign at LDHS… Wednesday afternoon at LDHS four student athletes signed letter of intent to continue their academic and athletic careers at four different institutions in South Carolina… Laura Gregory and Maryah Hernandez will continue their cheerleading at two different schools… Laura will be cheering on the PC Blue Hose while Maryah will be doing the same for the Newberry Wolves… Both are members of the competitive cheer team at LDHS since it was started by Coach Erin Patterson two years ago… The team was able to qualify for the state tournament this year… Leyden Gentry is signing with Coker University to continue hos wrestling career… His career at LDHS is not quite over as he has qualified for the Individual State Wrestling Tournament in Florence starting tomorrow in Florence in the 150-pound weight class where he finished #1 in the recent Upper State Qualifier… Ja’Mauri Williams will continue his football career at Erskine College playing for the Flying Fleet… He has played defensive back and some linebacker for the Raiders where he has been a member of the All-Region Team for the past two years… He is planning on playing the same positions at Erskine… I am trying to get two video interviews audited and put up on YouTube but I am having trouble with my video editing program… If you would like to see the interview done with Williams and Gentry, click here… If you would like to see the interview done with Gregory and Hernandez, click here… Congratulations and good luck to these fine young student athletes.
- Wrestling… I want to wish members of the Raider wrestling team good luck as they travel to the Florence Civic Center today and tomorrow to participate in the SCHSL Individual Wrestling Championships… Last weekend at Westside HS in Anderson at the Upper State Qualifier they placed high enough to punch their ticket to this weekend… Those wrestlers include (weight class, name, finishing position at qualifier):
- 106 – Chrisley Martin – 5
- 113 – Abel Miles – 7
- 120 – Kai McCall – 3
- 126 – Jordan Miles – 8
- 138 – Dakota McCall – 1
- 144 – Michael Aiken – 2
- 150 – Leyden Gentry – 1
- 157 – Jonathan Pagoda – 4
- 175 – Zane Kellett – 3
- 190 – Zi’Anthony Priestly – 5
- 215 – Michael Brown – 5
- In addition to these young men, Raider female wrestler Emily Riopel has qualified for the female portion of this event in the 170-pound classification.
- Good Luck to the Raiders!!!
Laurens Academy
- Girls Basketball: Crusaders 44 – Raiders 43 in OT… The Lady Crusader basketball team punched their ticket to the SCISA Class AA finals Saturday by taking a 44-43 win over the Lady Raiders of Dorchester Academy in overtime last night… The Raiders lead 14-11 at the half and went on a run that saw the Crusaders go down by 11 before they cut the Raiders lead to 28-20 going into the fourth quarter… The Crusaders continued their comeback in the fourth quarter and had a 2 point lead when Dorchester tied the game 39-39 with 10 seconds left in regulation… Mackenzie Runyans was able to get off a shot just before the buzzer but it rimmed out… In the overtime, the Crusaders took the lead for good with 6 seconds left on free throws by Sadie Bruyere… Dorchester got off a desperation shot that did not find the basket as the Crusaders took the win… Sadie Bruyere led the Crusaders with a game-high 14 points with 10 pf her points coming from the free throw line… Brooklyn Senn also scored in double digits as she finished with 13 points… Others scoring for the Crusaders included Mackenzie Runyans with 6 points, Braylee Burks 6, Brooke Abercrombie 4 and Madisyn Graham 1.
- Up Next… The Lady Crusades have advanced to finals in the SCISA Class AA Basketball Tournament…They will be taking on the Lady Stingrays of Cross Schools out of Bluffton Saturday at the Sumter Civic Center at 1:00 pm… The Lady Crusaders are now 18-7 Lady Crusaders while the Stingrays are 17-10… They are led by junior guard Ryan Mayers who is averaging 13.9 points per game… If you would like to see the schedule and results for the Stingrays, click here… Good Luck to the Crusaders!
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 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 for game(s) click on it to see details on the game(s).
Men
- DI AP Poll… The latest AP Top 25 Poll (2-16-25) some changes in the top 5 this week… Auburn is still #1 followed by Florida (3), Duke (4) and Alabama (2)… There were also some changes in spots 6-10 as Tennessee (5) now checks in at #6 followed by Texas A&M (8) Iowa State (10), Texas Tech (12) and St John’s (9) …Clemson moved up from #23 to #18 this week… 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 (2-16-25) also had a few changes in the top 5…Notre Dame (2) is the new #1 followed by Texas (3), UCLA (1), Southern Cal (6) and UConn (7)… Spots 6-10 are now occupied by South Carolina (4), LSU (5), Ohio State (9), North Carolina (12) and TCU (11)… 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.
NASCAR
- William Byron Wins Rain Delayed Daytona 500… In case you missed it Sunday night, William Byron was sitting in just the right spot to miss all the wrecking in front of him on the last lap of the rain delayed Daytona 500 to take his second win there in as many years.. For more on this race click here. .
- Driver Standings… After the first race, the top 3 drivers in the Cup Series Standings are Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Austin Cindric… If you click here you will go the NASCAR posting that has the Cups Series standings from top to bottom… Once you get there you can click on tabs at the top of the page to see the driver standings in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series.
- Master Schedule… If you click here it will carry you to the NASCAR website where the season schedule is posted, and you can look at the Cup Series. Xfinity Series or the Craftsman Truck Series by clicking on their icon at the top of the list… In addition to the date and location, it will also give you race times and TV viewing options.
This & That:
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