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Photos by Kenneth Armstrong
ROSE HILL – Clinton’s change on defense to start the second half led to a disastrous third quarter for West Bladen. A closing third-quarter 13-3 run was enough to lift the Dark Horses to the Four County Conference boys’ basketball tournament championship.
Xzavier Howard and Zion Autry each scored 16 points as Clinton defeated the Knights 72-59 on Friday night in the title game at Union High School.
Stefan McDonald scored 19 and Sayaun Dent had 17 for West Bladen, which fell to 20-7 and will be the No. 2 conference seed in the upcoming Class 2-A state playoffs. The Knights are expected to learn Saturday their opening-round opponent in next week’s tournament.
Clinton, 18-8, will be the top-seeded 2-A team from the Four County Conference. Both West Bladen and Clinton finished behind Class 1-A Heide Trask and Wallace-Rose Hill in the regular season.
“The first half went the way we wanted it to. We played well,” West Bladen coach Travis Pait said. “When they went to the 3-2 zone and it was with the 3 bigs at the top, it gave us problems. Their length gave us problems. We made adjustments and started getting what we wanted off of it.”
Clinton outscored West Bladen 19-7 in the third quarter, turning a 31-30 deficit into a 49-38 advantage. The Knights never came closer than seven in the fourth quarter.
Clinton put Howard, Autry and Jeremiah Pope, all at least 6-foot-3 and with long arms, near midcourt on defense to start the second half. The strategy paid off in the final three minutes of the third quarter when the Dark Horses turned a 36-35 edge into an 11-point lead. The only points for West Bladen during the stretch was a 3-pointer by Will Lambeth. Clinton scored the final nine points of the quarter.
“That still wasn’t what lost the game,” Pait said. “We allowed 10 points off missed free throws in the second half.
“We played zone (defense) because we had an injury. Our best defense is man, but we were in foul trouble, so we went to it. Our rotations were terrible on the backside. We didn’t cut off the driver. We didn’t help on the backside of that.”
The first half was played on even terms. The score was tied five times, the lead changed twice, and the largest lead belonged to West Bladen at 27-23 and 29-25.
Dent scored seven points, including a 3-pointer, in the first quarter as West Bladen led 15-13. McDonald scored 11 in the second quarter as the Knights led 31-30 at half.
After the game-changing third quarter, West Bladen couldn’t make a run in the final quarter like it did Wednesday in coming from 10 down in the fourth quarter to beat Trask.
West Bladen defeated Clinton twice — 70-65 and 72-63 — during the regular season, but couldn’t do a third time Friday.
“Tip your hat to Clinton,” Pait said. “They are, by far, the most talented team in this area. We kept ourselves in position. They out-gutted us at the end.
“This team has been tough and resilent all season. Good thing about us is that after we screw up, we usually come back and play strong,” Pait said.
WEST BLADEN (59) – Stefan McDonald 19, Sayaun Dent 17, Shaquille Johnson 9, Jonathon Robinson, Will Lambeth 7, John Bowen 7.
CLINTON (72) – Trevor Leggett 2, Kris Williams 12, Logan Batchelor 4, Jeremiah Pope 10, E.J. Howard 8, Xzavier Howard 16, Zion Autry 16, Rayquan Faison 4.
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