Clinton’s first Class 2A boys’ basketball playoff game was a bit less tense than the final score indicated.
Saluda (15-8) fell by a fast-closing 54-49 score. The Red Devils, also 15-8, led 44-25 entering the fourth quarter. Clinton also started slowly, trailing 8-5 after the first eight minutes.
Led by Tushawan Richardson with 24 points (in the game), the Red Devils doubled up the Tigers, 26-13, in the decisive third quarter.
Other Clinton scorers were Terry Smith (8), Devin Swindler (8), Zy Butler (6), Kylen Calhoun (3), D.J. Clark (2), Owen Glenn (2) and Jared Willard (1).
Moving forward, the Clinton girls are at home on Thursday against Landrum on Thursday at 6 p.m., while the boys travel to Spartanburg on Friday to take on High Point Academy.

It was quite an accomplishment for Laurens to earn a Class 4A playoff berth in girls’ basketball. What actually happened in the postseason on Tuesday night was less to write home about, even though the game was in faraway Camden.
The Bulldogs (17-6) blasted the Raiders, 74-20, building a 19-3 lead in the first quarter and 33-12 at half. Camden’s press forced 30 Laurens turnovers.
As hard as this may be to believe, Camden was the third-place team in Region 3. Five players scored in double figures against Laurens (12-14), whose leading scorer, Zoe Young, had eight points.

Believe it or not, the Class A play in Bishopville was less competitive.
Lee Central (19-4) defeated Thornwell, 75-6. The Saints did not score until the final four minutes. Jessie Pitts scored that bucket and one more. Kendra Wilson had the third.
Laurens Academy has reached the semifinals of SCISA’s Class 2A state tournament. The Crusaders take on Dorchester Academy on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Sumter at Wilson Hall Academy.
When Elon won its first baseball game of the season, the Phoenix didn’t mess around.

Setting a trap on its home field Tuesday, Elon (1-3) rapped 16 hits – left fielder Jackson Alford had three of them – and took full advantage of four PC errors in a 16-3 laugher that the Blue Hose once led 2-0.
Five hurlers saw action for the Phoenix. Only the first and last allowed runs. The second, Owen Winebarger, earned the decision. Eight paraded to the mound for the Blue Hose (2-2). All but two allowed runs. Starter Mikey Marroquin bore the brunt of the damage, allowing six runs (three earned) and five walks in 2-1/3 innings.

The players on the left side of the PC infield, third baseman Trey Fenderson and shortstop Eli Lazio, were the only Hose with two hits, though six others got a safety apiece.
The Blue Hose return home for a three-game weekend series against Le Moyne that begins Friday. The Dolphins do most of their cavorting in DeWitt Town, N.Y. Le Moyne joined Division I in 2023.

Words can ill express my appreciation for the assistance I’ve been getting from lifelong friends and acquaintances in regard to my recent health struggles. I’m not particularly emotional. It’s not unusual for six months to pass before I cry even at the most heartwrenching of tragedies.
I am deeply touched, though, at the concern of people I’ve known for most of my life.

The coming months will bring more change, and I don’t know yet what shape it will take.
From time to time, I have thought it a shame that people don’t often know what others think of them while they are alive. I’ve had a rough go of it recently, but I know that others respect, appreciate and support me.
Thanks for reading my stories, overlooking my flaws and indulging our differences.
My books, most of them fiction, are available at Amazon and on other bookseller sites. If you’d like to sample my fiction, try Longer Songs, a collection of short stories, all derived from songs I’ve written.
Thanks for putting up with me.