Dark Horse Ciara Stuart gets off her feet for a pull-up jump shot.
The Clinton girls were back on their home court Monday night, stepping out of conference play and taking on old rival Wallace-Rose Hill on the hardwood. This marked the second meeting of the season between the two teams, and the Lady Dark Horses were looking to complete the sweep after winning the first match-up 70-51. This time around, things transpired much the same as Clinton led from start to finish and claimed victory, 64-49.
Rubi Davila’s got things started for Clinton, grabbing a steal and heading the other way for an easy lay in. Davila also got the Lady Dark Horses’ second field goal of the game on another layup in the lane, making it a quick 4-0 lead. After Phoenix Everett missed a pair of free throws, another steal led to another easy basket for Davila, who made it 6-0 at the 6:47 mark. Clinton continued to pour it on in the early going, reaching a lead of 10-0 before Wallace-Rose Hill finally cracked the scoreboard. Still, the Lady Dark Horse defense was stifling the Lady Bulldogs and clean possessions and points were a rare commodity for them. As that trend continued throughout the first quarter, Clinton continued to thrive. Their lead reached 19-4 before a WRH 3-pointer ended their long scoring drought. Suddenly the Lady Bulldogs found their footing and began to mount a little rally. As the quarter was winding down, they hit a 7-0 run and got back to within 19-11. Free throws by Jianna Pickett ended the run and at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Dark Horses led 20-12.
Wallace-Rose Hill continued to inch ever so closer, but turnovers prevented them from really dicing more into the deficit. They had multiple opportunities to get the game down to a single-possession affair, but Clinton prevented that from happening and began to widen the gap again. After an initial slow start to the quarter from both teams, the Lady Horses hit a little streak and built their lead back to 28-14. At the 3:18 mark, there was a timeout on the court called by Clinton. Out of the break, their hot streak continued as they ran their lead to 38-14. WRH sank a couple of shots right before the end of the half and at halftime, the score was 38-18.
The second half started out much like the first half. Davila got a couple of early steals and pushed the Lady Dark Horses lead 42-18. After another steal and layup, the lead reached 44-18 at the 6:08 mark in the third quarter. Then, a couple minutes later, Clinton’s lead hit the 30-point mark at 51-31. By the end of the third quarter, that game was well in hand as the Lady Dark Horses lead was 56-31.
The fourth quarter saw a lot of substitutions for the Lady Dark Horses as the game had long been decided. The Lady Bulldogs kept scrapping down on their end, slowly making the score not look as bad as it was. With just under two minutes to go, WRH got the lead down to under 20 points as the Lady Bulldogs starting lineup was virtually up against many reserve players. When the final horn sounded, Clinton had cinched the victory, 64-49.
Davila led the scoring for Clinton with 18 points. Everett was right behind her with 15 points and Ciara Stuart added 12 points.
With the win, the Lady Dark Horses are now 13-7 on the season. They were scheduled to be right back on their court on Tuesday at West Bladen and are back at home on Friday hosting Red Springs.