The Clinton varsity men’s basketball team found themselves in a rematch situation at home Friday as they hosted Wilson Fike. With the Dark Horses only loss this season coming from the Demons, Clinton aimed for vengeance. Unfortunately, vengence wasn’t to be had as the Dark Horses fell for the second time this season, the final 71-61.
The Horses may have lost again but they gave the No. 3 ranked and undefeated 3A Demons a run for their money. While Fike bested the black and gold by 10 points, it wouldn’t be until the fourth quarter when they’d pull away.
The game was by no means a one-sided effort, either, that Fike led until they eventually got separation. Before the final quarter of play, the Demons never maintained a lead until the end of the third where they led just by just one point. The real story for the home teams loss this go around was their slow start.
When rolling, the Dark Horses went toe-to-toe with Fike on every aspect of the court and were the better team on both ends of the court. Due to taking a while to get started, though, Clinton found themselves in a catch up situation, which hurt them in the end as they could never clear the hurdle and get the win.
Horses head coach Ron Davis pointed that out as he took reponsibility for their slow start of play.
“First off I just have to say what a fun game that was. Fike is one of the if not the best teams we’ll face all year,” Davis said. “We knew this was going to be another big challenge for us like it was the first time we played.”
“We’ve got to get better at responding and do a better job offensively from the opening tipoff. We got off to multiple slow starts tonight which means even though we fought hard we could never get over the hump,” Davis continued.
“That’s my fault and I’ve got to do a better job at getting our guys ready to go from the start, so we can avoid having to play from behind. But regardless of this loss this team is made of all heart and I believe we are going to win a lot of games,” he added.
They came close to winning this for sure and at halftime nobody could’ve predicted the outcome. Despite taking their time to get going, the score was set at a dead tie after the first two periods 24-24. It just wasn’t meant to be as they Horses suffer their second loss of the season.
Cameron Lawson led the offensive front again for Clinton, finishing the night with 17 points. Jalen Owens and Dieon Venable were the other two leading scorers, each with 10 points.
With another loss to Fike, the Dark Horses fall to 4-2 on the year. They take on another three game week of play beginning Tuesday, playing host as well they’ll face off with Smithfield-Selma.
