Clinton and Midway renewed their rivalry on the basketball court on Tuesday night. The Dark Horses made it clear that they had no plans to repeat the performance from the last time the two teams met. Still smarting from the beating they suffered at the hands of the Raiders in last year’s playoffs, the home team ran out to an early lead and never let up. In the end the Dark Horses blasted the outmanned Raiders in a lopsided 74-41 win.
The Dark Horses outscored the Raiders 14-0 in the first 2 minutes, 40 seconds of the game with the Raiders unable to scratch until the 5:21 mark of the first quarter. The Dark Horses kept their foot on the gas, running their early lead to 26-4 at the end of the first quarter, and looked poised to blow out the visitors before the Raiders could get their feet under them. The Raiders settled down in the second quarter, but Clinton built on their lead, using several high-flying assaults on the basket to ignite the crowd and run the halftime advantage to 42-16.
The Dark Horses put the game further out of reach early in the third quarter, adding three early three-point baskets on the way to outscoring the Raiders by five points in the quarter to run their lead to 58-27 going to the final frame. With the game well in hand, the Dark Horses got everyone in the game early in the fourth quarter, maintaining their lead and closing out the Raiders with the 33-point win.
The Dark Horses were led by Jeremiah Pope with 17 points, Dewan Lesane added 11 and Tymair McIntyre pitched in nine points off the bench. Midway was paced by Colby Pope with nine points and Cole Parker with six.
After the game, Clinton head coach Randy Jordan had high praise for his team in all facets of the game.
“I thought we played well offensively and defensively. We took them out of what they wanted to do early and used some good shooting to jump out to a big lead. I’m proud of where we are, but we have a long way to go and a lot to work on, but this is a good win over a well-coached team.”
After the game, Clinton senior Tyion Wright addressed the motivation that last year’s loss to Midway gave the Dark Horses.
“We were embarrassed by the way they beat us to knock us out of the playoffs last year. We just brought our best game and took it to them tonight — we wanted to make sure we took care of business.”
“We came in and just stayed focused,” McIntyre added. “We remembered what they did last year and we had something to prove tonight.”
The win extends Clinton’s streak to eight games and runs their overall record to 10-2 and 3-0 in Four County Conference play. Midway falls to 5-6 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Clinton was to play host to Union on Wednesday night while Midway was returning home to face Wallace-Rose Hill on Wednesday.
In JV action, Clinton dropped Midway 47-34. Leading scorers for Clinton were M. Boykin with 10 points, Des Raynor with nine and Carson Ellis with eight. Midway was led by Joseph Head with 12 points. The win improves Clinton JV’s record to 7-2 overall.
