Hobbton’s Reggie Thompson looks to shoot a shot from near the elbow, as teammate Amir Tate, No. 11, moves to set a screen. Clinton’s Jabari Daughtry, No. 5, Zy Wallace, No. 15, and Anyahs Butler, No. 4, all look to defend the shot.
Brandt Young|Sampson Independent
Hobbton outlasts Clinton for first win
Clinton’s Jabari Daughtry, No. 5, puts up a shot on Hobbton’s Reggie Thompson, No. 25 and Richard Simpson, No. 10, get hands in his face. Dark Horses Zy Wallace, No. 15, and Devon Garner, No. 25, crash on the play to look for the rebound as Hobbton’s Nashon Kilkenny, No. 13, anticipates the shot under the hoop.
Brandt Young|Sampson Independent
Clinton’s Anyahs Butler, No. 4, looks to drive against Hobbton’s Jay Rodriguez, No. 5.
Brandt Young|Sampson Independent
Hobbton’s Deonte Darden, No. 1, eyes an open shot at the hoop as Clinton’s Garrison Hill, No. 21, looks to move in and disrupt the shot.
Brandt Young|Sampson Independent
In Monday night’s second Hobbton-Clinton game, the boys’ basketball teams squared off in early season, non-conference play in the CHS gym. It was the visiting Wildcats that came out on top, 48-25.
Hobbton’s Richard Simpson started the scoring early as he grabbed the first two points off a layup for the Wildcats. He added two more just a few moments later — another layup — giving them the early four-point lead.
Another layup from Simpson resulted in the and-1, and after the missed free throw, Hobbton had the 6-0 lead. Between the field goal and free throw, Clinton head coach Michael Boykin called the game’s first timeout.
“No easy baskets!” he told his team during the early break in action, visibly upset with their play so far.
Deonte Darden sank his free throws after being fouled on an attempt, and the Hobbton lead jumped out to 8-0 as the opening period neared the halfway mark. Clinton’s Dustin Pike missed on two consecutive three point shots, adding to the home team’s woes. Ivey Sampson added one more miss shortly after.
Garrison Hill grabbed Clinton’s first two points of the game near the 3:30 mark, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to six. Zy Wallace was fouled on a put-back later on, and was unsuccessful on both free throw attempts.
Scoring became stagnant in the latter stages of the first quarter, as Clinton’s Taylen Moore scored two more just before it ended, making it 8-4 going into the break. Prior to that, neither team scored for over three minutes.
Hobbton’s Reggie Thompson scored the first points from either team in the second quarter on a layup that resulted in Clinton’s Amir Wright grabbing his third foul of the contest early in the second.Wildcat Amir Tate added three more on a moon shot from behind the arc, widening it to 14-4. Clinton’s Moore responded immediately with a mid-range jump shot of his own, cutting it back down to 14-6.
Thompson grabbed two fouls in succession — one on offense, one on defense — which prompted head coach Aydan Tart to sub him out of the game before his foul troubles got even worse.
The Wildcats added more points on free throws, as Clinton found themselves in foul trouble going down the first half stretch. This widened the Hobbton lead to 17-7 with three minutes remaining.
Jabari Daughtry cut it back down to eight for the Horses on a breakaway steal and layup. Devon Garner added two more on a put back and cut the lead to four, at 17-13, still in favor of the Wildcats.
Hobbton added seven more in quick action, and they extended it out to 24-13 just before halftime. In the meantime, Thompson grabbed his third foul of the game, and was checked back out.
Forced and unforced errors came to both teams in the final seconds of the first half, with the score staying the same at 24-13 in favor of the Wildcats.
A pass from Garner to Henry Bass resulted in a layup early in the third, which was an answer for Hobbton’s early two points in the same quarter, and the score sat at 26-15.
By this time, the Dark Horses had fully employed their full court press defense. The Wildcats broke through on one trip down the court, and Simpson added two more to make it a 32-17 lead for the visitors.
A full-team substitution came for Clinton, employing their tallest players in Henry Bass, Taylen Moore, Dustin Pike, and Garrison Hill, a move from Boykin to try and erase the rebound deficit they had found themselves in.
The game went stagnant for both teams in the final stages of the third period, but a chase down block from Clinton’s Henry Bass resulted in a mid range baseline jumper from Dustin Pike at the other end, which cut the lead down to 35-21.
Thompson sank one of two free throws to push the Wildcats back out to a 38-21 lead with six minutes to go, and shortly after, Clinton signaled for another timeout. Darden added two more, but was assessed with a technical foul after the shot. Bass took the free throws for Clinton, and sank one, making it 40-21 with 5:20 remaining.
The lead continued to spread for Hobbton, reaching 46-21 with 2:46 remaining. The two teams traded a few points down the stretch towards the end of the game, and the scoreboard showed a final score of 48-25 for the Wildcat win.
“We gotta stop letting guys get confidence early in the game,” Clinton head coach Michael Boykin said afterwards. “That’s just any player — you see an easy basket early and you’re feeling yourself after that, so the goal was to come in and try to keep them from getting easy baskets early. We didn’t execute it like we needed to; it’s a learning thing.”
The optimistic coach still has hope for his team, though. “We’re young. We’ve got a lot to learn, and sometimes you’ve got to light a little fire under them. So we’ll go to the drawing board and try to figure out what’s next,” he continued.
Clinton fell to 0-2 on the season. They host South Lenoir tonight for a 7:30 p.m. tip off, and will travel to James Kenan Friday for an 8 p.m. tip. Hobbton moved to 1-1, and they are in Spivey’s Corner tonight to face the Midway Raiders at 7:30 p.m. They will host Jones on Friday night for another 7:30 p.m. tip off.
Reach Brandt Young at (910) 247-9036, at byoung@clintonnc.com, or on the Sampson Independent Facebook page.