TyJ Jones scored nine of his 24 points in overtime, leading Laurens to a 53-50 cliffhanger over Fountain Inn on Friday night at LDHS.

Jones hit two free throws in the final seconds to ice the victory after hitting two of his first six freebies in the extra period. But he clinched it with his final two after giving the Raiders the lead with a late three-pointer.

What put Laurens (3-8) in overtime was a mess of a fourth quarter in which it scored two points and squandered a 10-point lead (38-28) after three quarters. Jones scored those two, also, and 11 of the Raiders’ last 14.

Amaziah Jenkins led Fountain Inn (8-4) with 14 points. Aaden McDowell added 12 and T.J. Martin 10.

Also etched into the book for the Raiders were Neze Shaw with 12, A.J. Singleton and Nygere Brown with six apiece, Zee Simpson three and Jaylen Simpson two.

The Raiders were rolling along smoothly till the fractured fourth, leading 9-6 after a quarter, 24-20 at half and 38-28 after three.

It wasn’t lovely for either team, and it was ugly at the free-throw line, where Laurens managed to coax just 8/19 tries through the net and Fountain Inn was a lackluster 8/16. The Raiders shot .437 (21/48) from the field while the Fury was struggling at .350 (20/57). Those figures provided plenty of rebounds to gather – Fountain Inn 34, Laurens 31 – and the Raiders forced 20 turnovers and committed 17.

Fountain Inn’s 61-44 victory in the girls’ game displeased Laurens head coach Michael Cade.

“One of the biggest things was that we just got outplayed with effort,” he said, adding, “We got behind, and then we started playing like the game was over.”

The Raiders actually led, 12-10, after a quarter and before the deluge. Fountain Inn (10-2) surpassed Laurens (7-6) by a margin of 17-5 in the second quarter, 18-12 in the third and 16-15 in the fourth.

“Fortunately, at the end, the five on the floor were giving effort, and we kind of went bucket for bucket,” he said.

Laurens led in rebounding, 47-37, but, unfortunately, also led in turnovers, 28-12.

Only Nya Allen scored in double figures with 12 points for the Raiders. Faith Jackson added nine, Zoe Young eight, Tiyonna Jones five, Destiny Anderson four, Ta’liya Ballard three, Shanayi Chinn two and Shakaria Chinn one.

Three led the Fury in tightly descending order: Zipora Sullivan (15), Cameron Thompson (14) and Aniya Brown (13).

It wasn’t a big shooting night. Laurens hit 14/59 (.237). Fountain Inn was accurate on 18/52 (.346).

Laurens won both junior-varsity contests, the boys over Fountain Inn, 24-22 (on Hykieem Burnside’s three-pointer at the buzzer), and the girls, 26-14.

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