By MONTE DUTTON

Clinton High School’s football schedule opens on Aug. 28 with a visit to Laurens for the county championship game.

Three newcomers join the schedule due to the Red Devils being realigned in Region 2-2A. Clinton also visits Batesburg-Leesville in a non-region game on Sept. 25.

The region schedule begins on Oct. 2 with a visit to Southside Christian in Greenville. Mountain View Prep visits Clinton on Oct. 16. The new region alignment pairs the Red Devils with Southside Christian, Chesnee, MVP, Landrum and Woodruff.

Head coach Corey Fountain has schedule scrimmages at home on Aug. 6 versus T.L. Hanna and York, Aug. 10 at home versus Wren and Aug. 14 versus Riverside in a jamboree at Byrnes in Duncan. The home scrimmages are set for 6 p.m.

Clinton, the 2024 Class 2A state champion, is coming off a 9-4 season that ended in the third round of playoffs with a loss to Fairfield Central.

Here is the schedule. All games begin at 7:30 p.m.

Aug. 28, LAURENS.

Sept. 4, at Newberry; 11, at Chapman; 18, UNION COUNTY; 25, at Batesburg-Leesville.

Oct. 2, at Southside Christian*; 9, at Chesnee*; 16, MOUNTAIN VIEW PREP*; 23, LANDRUM*; 30, WOODRUFF*.

Home games in ALL CAPS. *Region 2-2A games.

Longtime Clinton football coach Andy Bee Young has been chosen for the S.C. Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Young compiled a 154-61 record, winning the 2009 Class 3A state title, while coaching the Red Devils for 17 seasons from 1993 through 2009.

The Red Devils’ winningest coach, Keith Richardson, was inducted in 1994. Young was second to Richardson in wins (239-154), seasons (24-17) and consecutive winning seasons (14-7).Young, a Clinton native won three Upstate championships, taking the Red Devils to the state finals in 1993 and 2005 as well as the 2009 title.

Young is to be inducted along with Zam Fredrick, George Wham, Catherine Lempesis, Dean Boyd, David Smith and Joseph Stroman Jr.

Clinton polished off Region 3-2A titles in basketball with the girls’ team finishing the regular season with a record of 25-1, 10-0 region, and the boys going 17-8 and 10-0.

John Gardner’s girls finished with a 53-19 triumph over Mid-Carolina in Prosperity on Tuesday evening. Allenson Cook and Kemaria Shelton each scored 10 points. Clinton has been ranked No. 1 in Class 2A by the S.C. Basketball Coaches Association all season.

Dontavius Glenn’s boys broke into the rankings this week, tying for ninth with Saluda. The Devils won, 68-44, over the Rebels. Sophomore Zekhyron Butler scored 23 points.

The boys open the playoffs on Monday, followed by the girls on Tuesday. Both teams will play at home against teams that will be determined by makeup games on Friday.

The Laurens boys (16-8, 6-2 Region 1-4A) reached No. 6 in the 4A rankings but lost to Westside, 70-46, on Tuesday, ending a seven-game win streak.

The girls (13-11, 3-5) fell 59-38 to the Rams.

The Raiders play Southside at home on Wednesday and visit Greenwood to play Emerald on Friday.

Laurens Academy (22-2) defeated Oakbrook Prep, 46-25, in Tuesday’s girls game, while the Crusader boys (14-11) won, 26-24.

For the first time, senior Peyton Duncan of the Presbyterian College softball team is Big South Pitcher of the Week.

Duncan tossed 11 innings over two games and registered a 1.91 ERA. She allowed only one hit in four frames during an eventual one-score victory over Le Moyne.

It was the 22^nd win of her Blue Hose career.

In her second effort of the weekend, against Dayton, she logged her first complete game of the year and for the 21^st time, pitched at least seven innings.

ESPNU has selected the UNC Asheville at High Point men’s basketball contest as its third Big South Wildcard broadcast of the season.  The game will tip at 7 p.m. at Qubein Center in High Point, N.C.

 It will be the third all-time Wildcard meeting between the squads on ESPNU, as Asheville won the most recent national TV match-up on Feb. 2, 2023 (89-63), with High Point the victor in the first meeting on Feb. 26, 2015 (75-71).

This is the 13th year of the Big South’s ESPNU Wildcard series, which features four Thursday primetime broadcasts –- Jan. 29 (at High Point 84, Presbyterian 81), Feb. 12 (UNC Asheville at Longwood – 7:00pm), Feb. 19 (UNC Asheville at High Point – 7:00pm) and Feb. 26 (7:00pm) — that are selected 14-21 days in advance.

A total of 60 games have been played in the series that began in 2013-14, and the home teams are 39-21, while the 60 contests have been decided by an average of 9.95 points, with 33 (.550) of those being decided by single digits.

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