West Bladen overcame a 14-point deficit and rode a 23-7 closing blitz to a key 70-65 Four County Conference boys basketball victory at Clinton Friday night.
“We battled our tails off tonight,” said West Bladen Coach Travis Pait. “It wasn’t pretty, but we had lot of people do some good things for us.”
Things looked bleak for the Knights with 6:50 remaining when the Dark Horses held a 58-47 lead, and West Bladen’s senior guard Stefan McDonald had been taken to the locker room with an injury.
Junior Sayaun Dent pumped in a 15-footer at the 5:30 mark to ignite the rally. Sophmore guard Jimmy Williams stole the ball and raced for a lay-up, and Dent drove for a lay-up and a 3-point play that trimmed the margin to 58-54.
Clinton’s Jaelan Best popped in a baseline jumper, but junior John Bowen sank 2 free throws, and junior Kalvin Page scooped up a loose ball and sprinted to the basket for a lay-up that whittled the lead to 60-58.
“Kalvin did a lot of good things for us,” said Coach Pait. “That was a really big play that he made.” Page had 4 points, 2 steals and a rebound during the closing spurt.
McDonald returned to the game and dashed to the basket with a steal. His attempt failed, but sophmore Shaquille Johnson was there to put back the transition rebound and tie the game with 1:50 on the clock.
Defensive stops by the Knights resulted in free throws for Page and McDonald who made 2 each for a 64-60 West Bladen lead with 1:08 remaining.
Clinton’s Juquan McLean delivered his third 3-pointer of the game to slice the lead to 64-63 with 50 seconds left. Five seconds later a McDonald free throw made it 65-63.
Johnson snatched a big defensive rebound and fired ahead to Bowen who found Dent racing to the basket for a lay-up. McDonald stole the ball and pitched ahead to Johnson for another lay-up and a 69-63 West Bladen lead with 15 seconds left.
Jeremiah Pope’s lay-up cut the lead to 69-65, but McDonald hit another free throw with 6 ticks remaining to end the scoring.
Johnson scored 13 of his team-high 17 points for West Bladen in the second half. “Shaq (Johnson) had a really big second half, and Sayaun (Dent) broke out with a good game tonight,” noted Coach Pait.
Dent and McDonald had matching totals of 14 points and 4 rebounds each. Dent scored 7 points during the closing run. Johnson led the Knights on the boards with 7 rebounds.
Bowen reached double figures with 10 points and had 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
Sophmore Jonathan Robinson finished with 3 rebounds and 3 steals for the Knights. “Jonathan may not have scored, but he did a lot of really good things for us,” added Coach Pait. “Jimmy Williams came in and played really good defense.”
“We needed this win to get some confidence and not start the new year with 3 losses like we did last year,” continued Coach Pait. “For some reason we seem to play well over here.”
McLean drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to give Clinton the early 6-2 lead. McDonald answered with a drive for a 3-point play, and Williams banked in a runner to trim the margin to 9-6.
Bowen dropped in a lay-up, and Johnson put back a rebound to keep West within 13-11. Dent drained a 3-point shot, but Xzavier Howard’s 7 points sparked a 13-3 Dark Horse spurt that opened up a 26-14 lead.
Two free throws and a corner jumper by Zion Autry extended the Clinton lead to 30-16. West freshman Keshawn Lewis flipped in a lay-up, and McDonald buried a 3-ball from the corner to cut the lead to 30-21.
A dunk on a follow shot by Bowen, a pair of McDonald free thows, and a baseline runner by senior Will Lambeth pulled West to within 35-28 at halftime.
Dent cashed in 2 free throws, Bowen converted a McDonald feed into a lay-in and Johnson worked the paint for 3 lay-ups and a free throw in the first six minutes of the second half.
However, a Pope lay-up kept the Dark Horses ahead 53-41. Dent tossed in 2 more free thows, McDonald drove for a lay-up and a Johnson put back a rebound to slice the Clinton lead to 53-47 at the quarter break.
McLean led Clinton with 14 points, Pope added 11 points and E. J. Howard followed with 10 points.
The Knights evened their conference record at 2-2 and improved to 11-3 overall with the win. West Bladen will visit Midway next Friday after the exam break.
West Bladen (70) – Kalvin Page 4, Jimmy Williams 4, Keshawn Lewis 2, Stefan McDonald 14, Sayaun Dent 14, Malique McDowell, Shaquille Johnson 17, Jonathan Robinson, Will Lambeth 5, John Bowen 10.
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