By MONTE DUTTON
Please release me. Let me go. I’ll catch up with the county when I get back from the mountains. Maybe nighttime baseball won’t be cold by then.
I spent Tuesday packing, leaving some stuff at the storage unit and bringing some back to the camper-trailer, which, no, I’m not towing to the mountains. I’ll be in cheap motel rooms. I won’t be doing anything there but sleep.
Once I was an inveterate traveler, leaving for, oh, Michigan on Thursday, flying back on Monday, washing and drying, paying bills, packing again and driving to Bristol on the next Thursday.
Nowadays I’m older, out of practice and still absentminded.
If I don’t turn around in Spartanburg realizing I don’t have my camera, I’ll watch two really bad women’s teams fight their guts out in Johnson City, where the Big South shindig commences.
Then it’s off to Asheville, back to Johnson City, Asheville, Asheville, Asheville.
If I enjoy myself, I might move somewhere between Asheville and Johnson City.
Conference basketball tourneys are places to spend time with folks. Most remaining ink-stained wretches get there at the last minute and get out as soon as possible nowadays.
I want to see it all, or as much as shuttle diplomacy allows.
Writers don’t retire. They might play guitar a mite more. I wasn’t going to take mine, but then I started listening to Don Williams. I guess we’re all gonna be what we’re gonna be, but what’ll you do with good old boys like me? (Bob McDill)
As the late, great Lefty Frizzell, wrote, I’m an old, old man trying to live while I can.
The Presbyterian men’s basketball team is off to Johnson City and the Air Force Reserve Big South Championships, looking to avoid another one-and-done and armed with a healthy quotient of all-conference honorees.
Redshirt junior forward Jaylen Peterson was named the Big South Defensive Player of the Year, redshirt senior forward Jonah Pierce made the first team, junior guard Carl Parrish joined Peterson on the honorable-mention list, and sophomore guard Josh Pickett was named all-academic..
PC touts the number as a school record
“I’m very excited for Jonah, Jaylen, Carl, and Josh for being acknowledged by the Big South coaches for their performance this season, which resulted in all-conference accolades,” stated Presbyterian coach Quinton Ferrell. “It’s a testament to my players’ and coaching staff’s hard work and dedication.”
Peterson is the first player in the program’s history to capture top defender.
In Big South Conference games, the Stone Mountain, Ga., native ranks second in the league in blocked shots (2.0 per game) and sixth in rebounds per game (7.50). In all games, he ranks third in the Big South in rebounding (7.35), fourth in blocks (1.48), and fourth in defensive rebounding (5.35).
He has 15 double-figure scoring games while averaging 10.6 points per game.
Pierce joins his assistant coach, Al’Lonzo Coleman (2012), and DeSean Murray (2016) as PC players named first-team All-Big South. Pierce is the 12th player in school history to earn All-Big South accolades.
The Sanford, Fla., native leads the Big South and ranks among the nation’s leaders in rebounding, grabbing 9.6 per game. In the NCAA, he ranks ninth in total rebounds (298) and 18th in rebounds per game. Pierce ranks eighth in the country with a Big South-leading 16 double-doubles.
The senior forward ranks in the Top 10 in the Big South in average scoring (16.4), rebounding (9.6), field-goal percentage (.559), and blocked shots (1.4).
Parrish, a Miami Gardens, Fla., native, is one of the best three-point shooters in the Big South, ranking amongst the league leaders in three-point field goals made per game (2.3). He is second in the league in free-throw percentage (.893) in conference games.
Pickett averages 5.6 points per game while dishing out 73 assists as the starting point guard.
The Plainfield, Ill., native has a 4.0 GPA, majoring in business administration.
The conference tournament gets underway with the clash of the bottom two women’s teams – Presbyterian (3-26, 1-15) and USC Upstate (11-19, 6-10) – one of which has got to win. The Spartans swept the regular-season games 58-38 and 70-63.
The Freedom Hall game starts at 5 p.m., followed at 8:30 by
Baseball (2-11) dropped a midweek clash at Charleston on Tuesday evening, falling to the Cougars 6-3 at Patriots Point.
The Blue Hose scored two runs to get on the board in the fifth inning to trail 3-2, but three subsequent runs by the Cougars were enough to hang on.
Take a look at the stats here.
Clinton High fell to Belton-Honea Path, 2-1, in its baseball opener. Next are games versus Ninety Six on Wednesday (5 p.m.) and Emerald (6) on Thursday in Greenwood’s Emerald City Classic.
The Red Devils visit Laurens (0-2) (7:30) on May 13. The Raiders dropped games to North Augusta (15-1) and Mid-Carolina (4-3).
Laurens Academy (24-3) fell to Cross Schools, 46-39, in the SCISA Class 2A semifinals. Dorchester Academy (21-5) won the title game over Cross, 38-36.
Many thanks to the advertisers who keep wellpilgrim.com going. If you’d like to join that number, contact me. Supplies are limited. The site is also supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).
Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C. 29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).
It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.
Most of my books are available at Amazon. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions.
Nightrider's Lament 