Clinton’s Lady Dark Horse basketball team squared off against Midway on Friday night for the Four County Conference Tournament Championship. The Raiders utilized a deliberate offense in an attempt to slow Clinton’s pace, and it worked until late in the first half. The Raiders committed costly turnovers at the end of the first half that allowed Clinton to go up by 15 before the break and then pull away in the second half with the 81-57 win.
Midway’s motion offense slowed the pace in the early going but eventually the Lady Dark Horses sharp-shooting duo of Mikayla Boykin and Alex Canady got on track. The two hit four 3-pointers in the opening frame to push Clinton to a 21-10 first quarter advantage.
The Lady Raiders pulled within 6 early in the second quarter but committed several costly turnovers that allowed Clinton to widen the margin. Boykin and company capitalized on each error, pushing the halftime lead to 43-28.
Once again, Midway used an early surge to cut into the Clinton lead at the beginning of the second half. With 2:45 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Clinton’s lead had been whittled to 12 points and the Lady Raiders seemed to have grabbed the momentum. But Boykin hit two 3 pointers late in the quarter, effectively dashing the hopes of a Raider comeback. By the end of the third frame Clinton had extended their lead to 62-44.
Trailing by 18, Midway was forced to abandon their game plan and try to push the issue and score, This shift played right into the Lady Horses hands, allowing the Clinton to play at a faster pace. Boykin hit 7 of 8 free throws and scored nine points in the fourth quarter with Ashlyn Williams adding 12 fourth quarter points, mostly on easy layups off Midway turnovers.
With the game well in hand, Clinton cleared the beach, allowing the reserves to get a couple of minutes of playing time. In the end, the Lady Dark Horses ran the final score to 81-57 and began to celebrate their conference tournament championship and look ahead to next week’s state playoffs.
Boykin lead all scoring with 38, Ashlyn Williams scored 16 points, and Alex Canady added 16 for the Dark Horses. Alyssa Wrench paced the Lady Raiders with 14 points, Hannah Lucas fired in 11, and Leah Williams added 10 points.
After the game, Clinton head coach, Chris Owens expressed pride in his team accomplishment saying, “we accomplished another one of our goals tonight, I’m very proud of the girls, they have worked hard all season winning the conference regular season and now the conference tournament championship. We are looking forward to starting the playoffs next week and the possibility of capturing the State Championship to reach out final goal.” Owens was hesitant to
recognize any single effort, applauding his team’s effort by adding, “I can’t really single out one performance tonight, this was a good performance by the entire team.”
Coach Owens gave Midway credit for a good game plan, “Midway came out and tried to shorten the game and I’m glad they did. It gave us a chance to really work against a strategy that we will probably run up against in the playoffs. I feel like the girls did a good job handling the Midway game plan and showed that we can be successful playing at a slower pace.”
Midway head coach Allen McLamb was disappointed with the loss, but was proud of his team’s effort. “We came in with a plan to try and slow Clinton down and it worked for a while. We made a few mistakes and you can’t do that against Clinton, They took advantage of every mistake and turned it into points. We gave a good effort, we just fell too far behind and had to come out and try to catch up, and that really opened up the game for Clinton.” McLamb feels confident his team has what it takes to make noise in the playoffs adding, “we have improved throughout the year and I think we could give folks some problems in the playoffs. We don’t know where or who we will play in the first round, but we are going to get ready and hopefully make a nice run.”
Both Midway and Clinton will find out who their first round will be on Saturday morning. Clinton should get several games at home with Midway likely traveling in the first round.
