The Clinton Dark Horses paid a visit to Spivey’s Corner Monday night for a conference game against the Midway Raiders. The home team scored the first 5 points of the game, but the visitors prevailed, posting a 70-62 victory.
The Raiders led early, but 8 straight points by the Horses forced Midway coach Matthew Creech to get a timeout. Clinton held a
22-11 lead after 1 quarter.
Midway outscored the Dark Horses in the 2nd period, but still faced an 8 point deficit at intermission. Clinton led 35-27.
In the third frame, Dark Horses Jeremiah Pope and Xzavier Howard accounted for 15 of Clinton’s 20 points, while Midway’s Michael Kramer and scored 8 to keep the Raiders within striking distance. It was 55-45 after 3 quarters.
The Raiders cut the lead to 5 points twice in the final period. A Paris Smith basket made it 55-50 and later a pair of Shyheim Small free throws cut it to 57-52. However, the Dark Horses would answer each Raider threat and would hold on for the 8 point win.
For Clinton, Pope finished with 17 points. Howard added 14. Kris Williams scored 10. Jaquan McLean and EJ Howard tossed in 9 each. Logan Batchelor contributed 5. Jaalen Best, J.J. Robertson, and Rayquan Faison had 2 each.
For Midway, Smith and Small scored 16 a piece. Kramer added 12.
Dariuss Perez had 7. Marelle Bullock connected for 4, while Malik Sankey hit a 3-pointer. Austin Raynor and Ayden Canady scored 2 each.
“We had a really good practice Saturday,” asserted Dark Horse head coach Randy Jordan, “We got off to a good start and we had an answer for everything they had. They’re a good team. We knew we were in for a fight all night. It’s just a good old backyard brawl.” Jordan also praised the performances of Howard, Best, and Kris Williams. “We had focus and discipline and we grew up a little more tonight,” he added.
“We fought through some adversity in the first half, not having our full starting 5,” assessed Creech. “We had our full force in the 2nd half and I thought we did a much better job of attacking their match-up zone. There were just too many mistakes.”
The Dark Horses improve to 8-4 overall and 3-0 in the Four County Conference. They will travel to county rival Union tonight (Wednesday). The Raiders fall to 10-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play. They will visit Wallace-Rose Hill tonight.
