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 in Girls Basketball… The Lady Red Devils punched their ticket to the Upper State Finals against another region foe Eau Clair tomorrow night 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.
- Rion Gordon Signs with Brevard College… Last Friday (2-28-25) senior offensive
lineman Rion Gordon signed a letter of intent to continue his football career and academic career playing for the Brevard College Tornados… Rion was very thankful to his parents, coaches, teammates and teachers for helping him to get this point in his career… Coach Fountain talked about him getting the work done in the classroom as well as being one of the leaders on this year’s Red Devil football team that won the SCHSL Class AA Championship… He played offensive line and was long snapper for the Red Devils this past season and the latter is what he will mainly do for the Tornados… Other schools further away also showed interest in him… If you would like to see a short video interview with him after the signing, click here…. Congratulations and good luck to Rion!
- Red Devils Open Baseball Season in Greenwood… The Red Devil varsity baseball team opened its season over the weekend as they started their participation in the Emerald City Classic being held at Emerald HS.
- Friday: South Aiken 5 – Red Devils 3… The Red Devils opened up their season Friday taking on the Thoroughbreds of South Aiken HS… The Thoroughbreds scored 1 run in the top of the first inning and then 2 more in the fifth before the Red Devils got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth inning but the Thoroughbreds “won” the sixth and final inning 2-1 to make the final score 5-4 Thoroughbreds… They outhit the Red Devils 6-4 and both teams made 4 errors… Camden Finley was the only Red Devil to get more than 1 hit as he went 2-3 with an RBI and a walk… To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here.
- Saturday: Red Devils 13 – Bulldogs 3 (5)… The news is better for Red Devil fans on Saturday as they took a 13-3 win over the Bulldogs of Silver Bluff in 5 innings… The Red Devils jumped out on top scoring single runs in the top of the first and second inning and 4 more in the top of the third inning before the Bulldogs were finally able to score a run in the bottom of the third inning but the Red Devils struck for 7 runs in the top of the fourth inning to make it 13-1 and then held the Bulldogs to just 2 more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to win on the 10-run rule 13-3… The Red Devils got their 13 runs on 9 hits, 7 Bulldog errors and a couple of walks… Two Red Devil pitchers gave up the 3 Bulldog runs on 3 hits, a walk and a couple of errors… Luke Young and Camden Finley both had 2 hits while Owen Glenn had only 1 hit that was a triple and drove in 3 runs… To see the box score of the game click here and to see the scorecard to see how the runs were scored click here.
- Up Next… If you click here it will carry you to a posting on the Emerald HS athletic website where there is more about this preseason tournament including the schedule (weather permitting)… It looks like the Red Devils are scheduled to be back in action Thursday at 6:00 pm when they take on the host Emerald Vikings… Go Big Red!
- Softball Starts Preseason Tournament Today… The Red Devil softball team is hosting a preseason tournament again this year and that tournament starts today and will end on Saturday… In addition to the Red Devils the other teams that are taking part are Abbeville, Whitmire, Greenwood, Laurens and Blacksburg… To see the entire tournament schedule click here… The schedule for today is as follows:
- Greenwood vs. Whitmire at 5:00 pm
- Greenwood vs. Laurens at 7:00 pm
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 on the LA website: Softball and Baseball … To see the MaxPreps schedule and results for the teams click on one of the following you are interested in: Softball…. Baseball
- Thornwell: To see the Thornwell schedules and results click on their MaxPreps pages by clicking on one of the following you are interested in: Baseball… Softball
- 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 Again… In case you missed it Sunday; Christopher Bell took the win in the Cup Series out in Austin making him the first two-race winner and first back-to-back winner this season… He was able to chase down Kyle Busch late on the road course and then hold off William Byron to get the win… For more on this race including the order of finish for the entire field, click here. .
- Driver Standings… After this race, the top 5 drivers in the Cup Series Standings are now William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott… 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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