By MONTE DUTTON

Clinton girls’ basketball coach John Gardner said, “It’s been a crazy week.”

The Red Devils and the Chester Cyclones played a pair of crazy Region 4-3A varsity basketball games at CHS on Tuesday night. They were crazy in good ways for Clinton and crazy in bad ways for the visitors.

Woodruff visits CHS on Wednesday with varsity games scheduled to begin at about 6 p.m.

Clinton (12-5, 2-0 region) plastered the Cyclones, 58-30, in a girls’ game that got off to a particularly bad start for Chester, which committed 20 turnovers in the first quarter and hit 1/6 shots. After eight minutes, Clinton led 23-2. The Red Devils only won by a 35-28 margin the rest of the way.

Chester (3-5, 1-1), led by Kelan Foster with 14 points, committed 40 turnovers in the game. Clinton committed 22.

The Cyclones shot .300 (12/40) from the field. Five of the shots they made were triples. Clinton beat Chester on the boards, 24-19, and shot .521 (25/48). The Red Devils connected only 4/12 at the free-throw line, though.

Mylayja Thompson, Clinton’s leading scorer with 11 points, canned her only free throw.

Given the extreme circumstances of Chester’s zany first quarter, Clinton had plenty of playing time to go around. Eight Red Devils scored: Thompson, Bryanna Belton (9), Kemaria Shelton (8), Zakaria Redd (7), Emma Patterson (6), Ry’Daijia Mars (6), McKenzie Clark (6) and Nah’shia Wright (5).

“We came out strong, which was good,” Gardner said. “We played last Monday, couldn’t practice because of storms on Tuesday, supposed to play on Friday and couldn’t, so, coming out and having to get our legs back under us wasn’t good, so having a fast start meant a lot.

“So now we go from playing one region game to, by the end of the week, we’ll be halfway through. It was good to see everybody get in and play and contribute.”

Led by Keleja Byrd and Kadon Crawford with 10 points each, Clinton (10-9, 2-0) similarly pounded the Chester boys, 64-49.

The teams were tied at 11 after a quarter and the Red Devils pulled ahead, 29-20, at halftime and 51-34 after three quarters. The pace was frantic, and Chester (4-6, 0-2)  couldn’t shoot a lick. The Cyclones fired accurately 16 times in 49 tries (.328), none of them three pointers. Chester canned a mere 11/26 free throws.

Pendergrass and Witherspoon, not attorneys at law, each litigated 11 points for Chester.

Clinton, which shot only .380 (19/50), harried the Cyclones with a press and amassed 10 more rebounds (41-31), also put a bushel of scorers in the book: Byrd, Crawford, Tushawan Richardson (9), Kylen Calhoun (5), Dirkus Clark (5), Jaquarius Anderson (5), Devin Swindler (5), Michael Henderson (4), Nyterian Smith (4), Emarian Jones (4), Jalin Massey (2), Denarian Aiken (1) and Khari Vance (1).

Thirteen. Whew.

The Red Devils sank 14/25 free throws. Four hit all their freebies. Five did not. Each team committed 20 turnovers.

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