Midway staves off Clinton rally

Midway and Clinton met up for the first time this season on the hardwood, taking to the court in Spivey’s Corner for some East Central Conference basketball action on Wednesday. What was looking like an impressive win for the Lady Raiders unfolded through the first three quarters before Clinton staged a late rally.

Though they erased the deficit and came all the way back from a once 16-point deficit to tie the game, the comeback effort fell just short as Midway held on for a 53-51 victory.

The first quarter of action saw the Lady Horses come out red-hot. A a quick 3-ball by Isa Banks kickstarted what would be a a 10-2 spurt for Clinton in the early goings. The Lady Raiders, though, countered with some three pointers of their own from Kris McKoy and Rylie Williams and surged past the Lady Dark Horses for a 14-10 lead. From there, Clinton went ice cold both from the field and on the free throw line. They flushed just one of several free throws down the stretch and Midway completed a 19-1 run to lead 21-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Throughout the the first segment of the second quarter, the Lady Raiders maintained their double digit lead. Clinton was getting plenty of shots around the basket, but nothing was going for the Lady Horses. At the 4-minute-mark official timeout, Midway still led 27-15. Out of the break, Clinton got back-to-back scores, including a 3-pointer, to make it 27-20, but a pair of free throws and a basket put the Lady Raiders lead right back at 31-20 with 1:36 to play in the first half. Missed opportunities continued to the Lady Horses while it was new faces for Midway that were doing right much of the damage. At the half, the Lady Raiders led 38-22

Out of the intermission, the second half didn’t exactly start off well for either team. At the 4:00 official timeout, only Clinton had scored two points with the score sitting at 38-24. By the 2:00 mark, the Lady Horses had worked their way back to down by just 10 points with a chance to cut the deficit to single digits. Instead, though, Midway finally put together some production. Although they only scored just six points in the third quarter, Midway maintained a 10+ point advantage at 44-31.

With the game now in the final quarter, the Lady Dark Horses had finally awoken. They tightened up their defensive effort, rattling the Lady Raiders with a full court. For Midway, the problem wasn’t breaking the press, it was converting down around the net when they did. With the game shifting into its latter stages, Clinton, which trailed by 16 at one point, had gotten the lead to single digits with 4:09 left. They got even closer, trailing by just seven at 50-43 with 3:30 on the clock.

Slowly, but surely, they worked their way back into contention, making things extremely close. Finally, with the game nearing one minute left to play, the Lady Horses had completed the comeback, tying the game up at 51-51; but their effort was halted there. Down the stretch and with everything on the line, Allison Belflowers converted what proved to be the game-winning layup with under a minute left as the Lady Raiders held on for the 53-51 victory.

Carving the path to victory for Midway was McKoy with 11 points, Morgan Williams with 10 points, and Rylie Williams with nine points. For Clinton, Khaliah Chestnutt had 19 points and Banks had 18.

With the win, the Lady Raiders are now 3-3 overall and were slated to be back on the court on Friday at James Kenan.

Clinton is now 5-2 overall and was also on the road on Friday night at Wallace-Rose Hill.