Clinton’s Amir Wright goes up for a one-handed layup.
Clinton was looking to avenge an earlier close loss to St. Pauls Tuesday night, but the visitors dominated from start to finish and were triumphant, winning 84-63.The first meeting between these two teams just a couple of weeks ago came down to the wire, a 64-62 loss for Clinton.
St. Pauls won the opening tip but threw the ball away. On the other end, Zy Wallace went 2-for-2 at the free throw line and gave Clinton the lead at 2-0. The Bulldogs tied the game back up and the score sat at 2-2 briefly. The scoring went back and forth a couple of times, but it was St. Pauls that got hot and mounted a little run. Consecutive 3-pointers helped them open a little gap and after another made buckets, the Bulldogs led 14-7.
The Dark Horses hit a little spark at the end of the period, though, and trailed just 14-11. Anyahs Butler got a layup to start the fourth quarter, drawing Clinton back to within 14-13. They stalled out there, though, as St. Pauls hit a 10-0 run to go back ahead 24-13.
Wallace finally got the Dark Hordes on the board again on a 3-pointer play, but they still faced an uphill battle. The game began to really spiral out of control from there, though, as another St. Pauls run pushed their lead above 10 points. Then, a technical foul on the Clinton bench and another on head coach Michael Boykin for challenging the call resulted in Boykin being ejected and the Bulldogs lead reached 38-22 with 2:52 left in the first half.
Their lead climaxed at 46-26 before the Dark Horses hit a little spurt at the end of the quarter. They got the lead down to 46-33 before St. Pauls countered with a 3-point basket of their own. When the horn sounded, the score was 49-34.
The Bulldogs kicked off the second half with a 3-pointer, then grabbed a steal for a chance to add more. A layup in the lane quickly made it 54-34 as Clinton was again down by 20 points. Another steal and layup made it 56-34, and the Dark Horses coaching staff signaled for timeout. Out of the break, St. Pauls continued to thrive. The referees, though, were still technical-foul happy as they handed out another one to the Bulldogs for a delay of game. By the end of the quarter, though, they were still well in control, leading 68-45.
The game was all but sealed up at this point, barring divine intervention. The game had not at all gone how Clinton wanted and the Horses simply couldn’t muster up anything needed to make a substantial run. Despite another technical being called against St. Pauls, the Bulldogs were doing exactly what they needed to maintain their edge. In the end, the Bulldogs got an emphatic victory, winning 84-63.
Butler had a huge game for the Dark Horses with 34 points. Wallace was next up with 11 points and Garrison Hill had eight points. Amir Wright and Devon Garner had four points each and Ivey Sampson had two. With the loss, Clinton is now 4-19 overall and 1-8 in conference play. They were slated to wrap up regular season play on Friday when they traveled to take on Red Springs.