Presbyterian College must nip a sinking feeling in the bud, particularly in men’s basketball.

The Blue Hose have lost three Big South Conference games in a row after winning at Charleston Southern in their opener.

A year ago, after opening with a victory over Campbell, Presbyterian never won again.

That team did not open with an upset of Vanderbilt, as this one did. On this date a year ago, PC was 5-14, 1-5 in the conference. So far this team is 9-9 and 1-3.

High Point (14-4, 3-0) has the Blue Hose on its home floor for a Wednesday-night game at 7. The much-improved Panthers are led by Duke Miles, a junior from Montgomery, Ala., who spent three years at Troy. Miles is averaging 19.6 points a game. Kimani Hamilton (13.7), Kezza Giffa (13.3) Abdoulaye Thiam (12.1) and Trae Benham (10.1) also score in double figures.

Back at Templeton Center, the Presbyterian women (11-8, 2-2) take on High Point (7-9, 2-1) at 7.

The Panthers have defeated Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville and lost to Radford. The Blue Hose have victories over UNCA and Winthrop and setbacks to Charleston Southern and Gardner-Webb.

Lauren Bevis, who leads the Panthers with a 16.0 scoring average, shooting .393 overall and .354 from outside the three-point line.

Three PC players are tightly grouped in scoring. Mara Neira averages 13.1 points, Bryanna Brady 12.7 and Tilda Sjokvist 12.1.

Laurens has shown evidence of improvement all season, but pulling out victories has remained difficult for Armond Flood’s boys’ basketball team.

Greenville (11-3) hosted the Raiders in its MLK Showcase and held them off, 57-50.

Laurens (7-13) trailed the Red Raiders by nine points at the end of the third quarter and could only beat them by two in the final eight minutes.

TyJ Jones led all scorers with 19 points for Laurens, followed by 3Tylan Fowler with 12.

Also scoring were Zee Simpson (7), Jaylen Simpson (4), Martinez Shaw (3), Nigere Brown (2), Travija Austin (2) and K.J. Singleton (1).

Laurens returns to Region 2-4A play on Tuesday night with home girls’ and boys’ games against Wade Hampton.

Clinton returns to Region 4-3A and its home court for Tuesday-night games against Chester.

The Red Devils are 11-5, 1-0 in the region, in girls’ play, and 7-7, 1-0, in boys’. The Cyclones’ girls are 3-5, 1-1, while the boys are 4-5, 0-2.

Clinton was, yes, rained out at Woodruff on Friday.

Laurens Academy (14-1) kept the ball bouncing with a 38-32 conquest of Brashier Middle College Charter (8-7) in Simpsonville on Saturday.

The Crusaders took gradual control in the second half after the Bengals played them to a 16-16 halftime deadlock but narrowly outscored them in both quarters of the latter half.

Olivia Huck led LA with 20 points.

Also scoring were Sadie Bruyere (8), Rylee Ballard (5), Emily Suttles (2), Madisyn Graham (2) and Hannah Ervin (1).

The games (middle school girls and boys, then varsity girls and boys) on Tuesday get underway at Newberry Academy at 4 p.m.

Also winning, though at a SCISA Challenge in Newberry, were the Laurens Academy boys (9-9), who defeated Mead Hall (0.-9) of Aiken, 33-22.

LA started fast, limiting the Panthers to two points in the opening quarter. The halftime score was 18-8.

Braydon Burke led the Crusaders with 10 points, followed by Buddy Baker (9), Jared Willard (7), Garrison Vaughn (4) and Garrett Murphy (3).

No county teams dot the state rankings of the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association.

BOYS

Class 5A: 1. Lexington, 2. Summerville, 3. Dorman, 4. St. James, 5. Byrnes, 6. T.L. Hanna, 7. Blythewood, 8. Spartanburg, 9. Fort Mill, 10. Berkeley.

Class 4A: 1. Ridge View, 2. Westwood, 3. Catawba Ridge, 4. Wilson, 5. Lancaster, 6. Greer, 7. Eastside, 8. A.C. Flora, 9. North Augusta, 10. Indian Land.

Class 3A: 1. Crestwood, 2. Darlington, 3. Orangeburg-Wilkinson, 4. Powdersville, 5. Wren, 6. Seneca, 7. Daniel, 8. Marlboro County, 9. Manning, 10. Dillon.

Class 2A: 1. Gray Collegiate, 2. Oceanside Collegiate, 3. Hampton County, 4. Andrew Jackson, 5. Marion, 6. Landrum, 7. Strom Thurmond, 8. Mullins, 9. Woodland, 10 (tie). Bishop England, Greer Middle Collegiate.

Class A: 1. St. Joseph’s, 2. Lewisville, 3. Denmark-Olar, 4. McCormick, 5. Bridges Prep, 6. North, 7. Christ Church, 8. Dixie, 9. Bethune Bowman, 10. Southside Christian.

GIRLS

Class 5A:  Sumter, 2. Mauldin, 3. Fort Mill, 4. J.L. Mann, 5. Rock Hill, 6. Dutch Fork, 7. Summerville, 8. Carolina Forest, 9. Gaffney, 10. Byrnes.

Class 4A.: 1. South Pointe, 2. Greenwood, 3. Pickens, 4. North Augusta, 5. Bluffton, 6. Westside, 7. A.C. Flora, 8. James Island, 9. Aiken, 10. (tie) Westwood, Hartsville.

Class 3A: 1. Camden, 2. Wren, 3. Orangeburg-Wilkinson, 4. Blue Ridge, 5. Aynor, 6. West-Oak, 7. Gilbert, 8. Fountain Inn, 9. Dillon, 10. Darlington.

Class 2A: 1. Bishop England, 2. Silver Bluff, 3. Andrew Jackson, 4. Gray Collegiate, 5. Blacksburg, 6. Oceanside Collegiate, 7. Lee Central, 8. Landrum, 9. Keenan, 10. Chesterfield.

Class A: 1. Military Magnet, 2. Denmark-Olar, 3. Lake View, 4. Carvers Bay, 5. High Point Academy, 6. East Clarendon, 7. Allendale-Fairfax, 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, 9. Bamberg-Ehrhardt, 10. Cross.

PC’s Kory Mincy is Big South Freshman of the Week. The East Point, Ga., product won the honor for the third time after averaging six points – and shooting .667 from the field – in losses to Winthrop and Gardner-Webb.

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