General 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 ($15 for later rounds) 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.
Pre-Season Baseball Poll
- Laurens and Clinton Ranked… In case you missed it late last month, the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association released its top 10 preseason picks for each of the classification in the SCHSL… Laurens County was well represented in that pool because the Laurens Raiders were picked to finish first in Class AAAA and the Clinton Red Devils were picked to finish third in Class AA… I’m sure that both Laurens Coach Tori Patterson and first-year head coach Peyton Spangler would say that these polls are nice and they are mainly for the fans and the only one they are concerned about is the one at the end of the year where the hardware is handed out after earning it on the field throughout the season… Both Clinton and Laurens will face stiff competition within their own regions as Mid-Carolina is ranked #1 in AA while Fountain Inn is ranked #5 in Class AAAA… Let’s look back at the end of the season and hope these polls were accurate of wind up even better in the case of the Red Devils… Click here to see the top 10 rankings for all the classifications.
SC Basketball Coaches Association All-State Teams… Recently the SC Basketball Coaches Association released is ALL-State Teams for 2024-2025 for each classification and both boys and girls… If you would like to see the entirety of those teams, click here to go to an article in The State Newspaper listing them… The Raiders and the Red Devils were represented on a couple of those teams…. Congratulations to the following athletes on their accomplishments this season!
- Laurens
- Boys… Narrius (better known as TyJ) Jones was named to the All-State team in Class AAAA… He was second on the Raider team in scoring (behind Q. Watts) averaging 13.9 points per game for a total of 362 points… He shot 43 % from the field, averaged 2.2 assist per game, 3 steals per game, made 68% of free throws attempted, 30% of 3-point shots and was third in rebounding for the Raiders.
- Girls… Zoe Young… The senior Raider led the team is scoring averaging 14.4 per game for a total of 346 points, shot 44% from field (while being battered by multiple defenders usually), averaged 12.7 rebounds per game (305 total), 1.6 blocks per game (caused a lot more shots than that to be altered) and shot 53% from free throw line.
- Clinton Boys had 2 players make the All-AA Team that were the mainstays of the Red Devils.
- Tushawan Richardson… Tushawan averaged 19.4 points per game for 350 points, averaged 4.9 rebounds per game (88) and shot 74% from the free throw line.
- Devin Swindler… Devin averaged 16.3 points per game for 245 points, averaged 6.3 rebounds per game (94) and shot 77 % from the free throw line.
Clinton HS
- Up Next… With the win the Red Devils punched their ticket to the Upper State Finals against another region foe Eau Clair which defeated still another region foe Mid-Carolina 54-43 in Columbia last night… The game will take place next Tuesday at The Florence Center at 6:00 pm… The winner of that game will play for the state championship at noon on Saturday in the same location…. For more information about the semifinal and finals including a link to purchase your tickets ahead of time click here… Go Big Red.
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: Softball and Baseball …. 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 (2-23-25) some changes in the top 5 this week… Auburn is still #1 followed by Duke (3) Florida (2), Houston (5) and Tennessee (6)… There were also some changes in spots 6-10 as Alabama (4) now checks in at #6 followed by St. John’s (10), Michigan St. (8), Iowa State (8) and Texas Tech (9)…Clemson moved up from #18 to #13 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 (2-23-25) also had a few changes in the top 5… Texas (2) is the new #1 followed by UCLA (3), Notre Dame (1), Southern California and UConn … Spots 6-10 are now occupied by South Carolina, LSU, North Carolina (9), NC State (13) and TCU… 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
- Christopher Bell Wins in Atlanta Overtime Cup Series Race… In case you missed it Sunday, Christopher Bell took the win in the Cup Series race in Atlanta… The race went overtime finishing with a green-white-checkered finish… Bell and the others took the white flag and then on the back straightaway he was in front when drivers behind eh lead pack wrecked bringing out the caution and by NASCAR rule since he was ahead after taking the white flag when the caution light came on, he was declared the winner… Talk about being in the right spot at the right time… For more on this race including the order of finish for the entire field, click here. .
- Driver Standings… After this race, the top 3 drivers in the Cup Series Standings are Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Tyler Reddick… 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.
- Weekend Schedule… To see full schedule for NASCAR this week out in Texas click here.
- 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:
SC Upstate Heat Basketball Tryouts Sunday, March 2nd… SC Heat a premiere travel ball program will be having tryouts this Sunday at different locations in the greater Laurens Area… There are no fees to tryout and if you want more information or you need to contact someone about this, click here to go to their website… Locations and age groups are as follows
- Gray Court-Owings School – Call Asst. Coach Staton at 864-764-2788
- Girls 5th and 6th grade at 3:00 pm
- Boys 9th and 10th grade at 4:30 pm
- Laurens Middle School – Call Coach Dap at 864-340-6401
- Boys 5th and 5th grade at 3:00 pm
- Boys 6th, 7th and 8th grade at 4:30 pm
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.
