By Sonny Jones
The four Bladen County middle schools are set to begin a new basketball season Thursday.
Tar Heel will host Clarkton School of Discovery in non-conference games. Bladenboro will play at home against Williams Township in Waccamaw Division A games. Elizabethtown will entertain East Columbus in a pair of Waccamaw Division AA games. Girls’ games tip at 4 p.m. followed by the boys’ games about 5:15 p.m.
The regular season ends Feb. 23. Each team will play a home-and-home series against the other four teams in the division. Non-conference games are optional.
Bladenboro won the boys’ and girls’ basketball championships last season.
• The East Bladen boys’ basketball team gets the opportunity to avenge their lone loss tonight. The 11-1 Eagles host the Heide Trask Titans. Trask won 56-50 on Dec. 7. The JV boys’ game is scheduled to tip at 4:30 p.m. followed by the girls’ varsity about 6 p.m. and the boys’ varsity about 7:30 p.m.
• Just a thought: Next season could the West Bladen vs. East Bladen basketball games be played inside Samuel Boger Gymnasium at Elizabethtown Middle School? There’s certainly much more seating than at either high school gym. The games at East Bladen were sold out. It will probably be the same later this month at West Bladen. At least twice as many people could fit inside the Elizabethtown Middle gym.
• If, back in November, you had Clemson atop the ACC basketball standings and the last team to be unbeaten (5-0) in league play, then I know never to trust you again. You’re lying.
• North Carolina’s 65-58 loss to Virginia on Tuesday night isn’t the worst news to come out of the game. UNC’s Armando Bacot injured his ankle and it doesn’t look good for the king of the double-doubles. We’ll find out in a couple of months if Hubert Davis and company have another March Madness run in them, but it doesn’t look likely now.
• It’s a Carolina Hurricanes weekened. The Canes play Pittsburgh on Saturday and Vancouver on Sunday inside PNC Arena. After winning 11 straight, Carolina has lost four in a row following Tuesday’s 5-3 loss against New Jersey. Time to bounce back.
• So, Carlos Correa is a Giants … no, a Met … no, a Twin. The All-Star shortstop went from a 13-year, $350 million deal with San Francisco to a 12-year, $315 million deal with New York to now, apparently, a six-year, $200 million deal with Minnesota, pending a physical. The physical has been the problem. Concerns over an injury to his right leg in 2014 made the Giants and Mets leery to commit to that amount of years. Six years is probably about right and he’ll still be about to afford to eat out.
TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
• 2014 — Alex Rodriguez is dealt the most severe punishment in the history of baseball’s drug agreement when arbitrator Fredric Horowitz rules the New York Yankees third baseman is suspended for the entire 2014 season as a result of a drug investigation by Major League Baseball. The decision cuts the suspension issued Aug. 5, 2013 by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig from 211 games.
POTATO PICKS TO WATCH TODAY
• SOCCER: Real Madrid vs. Valencia, 1:55 p.m., ESPN2
• WOMEN’S HOCKEY: U-18 World Championship – United States vs. Canada, 2 p.m., NHLN
• SOCCER: Torino at AC Milan, 2:55 p.m., CBSSN
• BASKETBALL: Pittsburgh at Duke, 7 p.m., ACCN
• NHL: Nashville at Toronto, 7:30 p.m., TNT
• NBA: Milwaukee at Atlanta, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
• BASKETBALL: Florida St. at Wake Forest, 9 p.m., ACCN
• BASKETBALL: East Carolina at Cincinnati, 9 p.m., ESPNU
• NHL: San Jose at Los Angeles, 10 p.m., TNT
• NBA: Phoenix at Denver, 10:05 p.m., ESPN
Sonny Jones can be reached at wibbyj@gmail.com.
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