Things happen. Changes are made. People adjust. Life moves on. Sports are no different from anything else. What sets sports apart is that wins and losses are easier to see.

Committees, panels, councils, senates, assemblies, federations, confederations, leagues, associations, et al., are all prone to hiding behind doors of various kinds. They hardly ever come out to play.

Laurens has a new football coach, a good one with a record of improving the downtrodden in a hurry.

If Greg Porter could set things straight at Southside, Hillcrest and Greenville, he can certainly do some serious business at Laurens, which considers itself a slumbering giant, and, obviously, Porter does, too.

Next up are region assignments. Laurens is happy to still be in Class 4A, and Clinton, which has been 3A since there was one, seems content with a shift to 2A.

The moment it occurred to fans that Clinton might be moving, most had one word pop into their heads: Abbeville.

Turns out, no. Abbeville appealed to be moved to Class A … and won. Here’s hoping Thornwell Charter doesn’t get assigned to the Panthers’ region.

Both Laurens and Clinton are located at what passes for border territory where their region assignments could go in three possible directions.

The road from Clinton to Union and back was rougher on Tuesday night than the Yellow Jacket opposition in the girls’ game.

The Red Devils won their seventh straight game, 72-21, behind Mylayja Thompson’s 14 points and 12 apiece from Zakalia Redd and Bryanna Belton.

Clinton (15-5, 5-0 Region 4-3A) scored plenty of points to pass around: McKenzie Clark (9), Emma Patterson (9), Ry’Daijia Mars (6), Saniya White (6), Nah’shia Wright (2) and Kemaria Shelton (2).

As you might’ve suspected, Union County is 2-16 and 0-5.

The Clinton boys are also roaring in the region and also won that seventh straight, prevailing 43-35 in a game that was quite different in everything but point spread. The Red Devils won the game in Clinton between the two, 63-55.

Keishawn Gibson scored 17 points, nearly half the total, for Union County (7-14, 2-3).

Clinton (11-7, 5-0) took care of business in the final period, pulling away after leading by only one at both halftime and the third quarter’s end.

Michael Henderson topped the Devil balance with 10 points. Lined up behind him were Tushawan Richardson (9), Devin Swindler (3), Dirkus Clark (5) and Kadon Crawford (4).

Laurens Academy belted the Carolina Panthers, 46-9. Oh, wait. It was Our Lady of the Rosary in a girls’ basketball game in Greenville, not NFL football in Charlotte.

The Crusaders (17-1) defeated the Lions (0-8) 63-18 earlier in the season.

Our Lady of the Rosary failed to score in the first quarter and had two at halftime, at which point it was 32-2.

Olivia Huck scored 17 points, Rylee Ballard 14, and they alone scored 22 more than the Lions. For good measure, Gracie Hall added six, Sadie Bruyere five and Makayla Lindley two.

Huck was 6/10 from the field, and Ballard was 4/9 and all the shots she made were three-pointers.

Rosary turned the tables in the boys’ game, winning 44-37. It was a flat third quarter that doomed Laurens Academy (9-13). Jesse Gourde scored 24 points for the Lions. Jared Willard led LA with 13.

Also scoring for the Crusaders were Braydon Burke (8), Garrison Vaughn (5), Tristen Bates (4), Garrett Murphy (4) and Micah Straight (3).

McCormick declined to take prisoners at Thornwell, winning the boys’ game, 76-11, and the girls’ game, 63-8.

Presbyterian College’s basketball teams are blissfully free of midweek games, at least for this one, and the Blue Hose are both playing on the road, at Radford (Va.), on Saturday, with the PC women playing the Highlanders at 2 and the men at 4:30.

The men (9-12, 1-5 Big South) have lost five straight and play at home next Wednesday, Jan. 31, versus USC Upstate.

The new women’s soccer coach, Matt Smith, has hired Kursten von Klahr as assistant coach.

Von Klahr, who is from Kannapolis, N.C., played for and coached with Smith at Kansas State.

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