As apt a description of my life as I’ve heard are the words of the songwriter Steven Fromholz:

Me and my friends are getting long in the tooth / From three or four decades of seeking the truth / Trying to recover from a misspent youth / And gradually giving in to knowledge.

As is the case regarding much of my accumulated wisdom, I learned the words because the song was recorded by the late Jerry Jeff Walker.

Fortunately, neither Fromholz nor Walker lived to see a time when most men and women have given up on knowledge and are happily getting dumber and dumber.

Or at least that’s my view.

The playoffs are upon the better basketball teams of Laurens County as the boys’ and girls’ teams of Clinton High School and the girls’ team of Laurens Academy barrel into the post-season as champions of their regions.

The first-round opponent of both Red Devil teams is Southside of Greenville, fourth seed in both genders of Region 2-3A. The boys’ game matching Southside (10-16, 4-6) and Clinton (14-7, 8-0 Region 4-3A) is Tuesday night at CHS, and the Southside (11-9, 4-6) at Clinton (8-5, 8-0) is on Wednesday evening.

Both games are to tip off at 6:30 p.m. Admission, as set by the S.C. High School League, is $8.

The Laurens Academy girls, coached ably as always by Jason Marlett, captured their region tournament – thank goodness there remains such a thing in SCISA – over the weekend with a pair of victories, 35-24 over Wardlaw on Friday and 48-37 over Cambridge Academy on Saturday.

In the Wardlaw game, Rylee Ballard scored 10 points to lead the Crusaders, followed by Olivia Huck (7), Sadie Bruyere (7), Emily Suttles (4), Hannah Ervin (3), Madisyn Graham (2) and Abby Howard (2).

After a sluggish first quarter by both teams, the Crusaders took control with a 17-4 second quarter and a 22-7 halftime lead.

Laurens Academy (23-1) then polished off the Cougars behind another fine performance from Ballard, who scored 20 points.

Following along at regular intervals were Huck (8), Suttles (6), Graham (5), Bruyere (5) and Ervin (2).

Ballard was tournament MVP, and Huck and Suttles made the all-tournament team.

Huck is region Player of the Year and Ballard made all-region. Marlett is Coach of the Year.

The Crusaders have won 23 consecutive games since falling, 52-28, to New Covenant of Anderson on Nov. 17, 2023.

It also deserves mention that the Laurens Academy middle-school games finished 20-0 and won its tournament championship game, 25-12, over Richard Winn.

SaDee Watkins and Caroline Robinson scored eight points each to lead the Crusaders, followed by Brooklyn Senn (4), Eliza Pearl Terry (2) and Braylee Burke (2).

Presbyterian softball played four games in two days of its Blue Hose Invitational, going one up and one down both days.

The Blue Hose won big over Norfolk State, 9-1, on Sunday and fell similarly to Tennessee Tech, 12-2.

It was the similar pattern from the day before, though PC’s opening-day loss to TTU was a close, 3-2 affair.

Presbyterian hosts another tournament, dubbed the Pinnacle Invitational, next week, with Morehead (Ky.) State, Youngstown (Ohio) State and Valparaiso (Ind.) visiting.

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