Dragons torch Red Devils
The Clinton Dragons fell just short at Knox Central on Tuesday evening, losing by a score of 61-60.
The Dragons took an early 15-12 lead thanks largely to the scoring of Luke Harrison, Evan Winchester, and Trevon Hill.
The Bobcats rallied in the second quarter, outscoring Clinton 14-8 to take a 26-23 lead at the half.
Central extended their lead to 51-36 in the third quarter and appeared to be well on their way to an easy win.
The Dragons rallied furiously in the final eight minutes, outscoring the Bobcats 24-10 but came up one point short of forcing overtime.
Harrison led Clinton with 22 points.
Hill had 13 points and led the team with 11 rebounds while Daraon Jones led the Dragons with six assists.
CHS 15 8 13 24 60
KC 12 14 25 10 61
CHS — Luke Harrison (22), Trevon Hill (13), Evan Winchester (10), Daraon Jones (7), Chase Lockard (5), DeMarcus McKamey (3)
KC — No stats available at press time
From the disappointment of Tuesday’s loss at Central, the Dragons responded in a big way with a romp over visiting Halls on Friday.
The final score was 65-46.
Almost as big as the win was the night enjoyed by Jones, who not only scored 37 points to lead all scorers, he also sank a school record nine 3-pointers.
Clinton jumped out to an 18-10 lead in the first quarter on the hot shooting of Jones and Harrison.
They extended their lead to 38-20 at halftime as Winchester bucketed a pair of treys and Chase Lockard hit one from beyond the arc.
Halls tried to fight back in the third quarter and managed to cut the Dragon’s lead to 45-35 but Clinton pulled away down the stretch.
The Dragons knocked down 12 3-pointers in the game compared to just three for the Red Devils.
Conversely, Halls scored 32 points in the paint compared to just 14 for Clinton.
Halls 10 10 15 11 46
CHS 18 20 7 20 65
Halls — Jordan Biliter (15), Jordan Corvette (11), Cooper Watson (10), Tryston Palmer (5), Landon Wells (3), Skylar Stalcup (2)
CHS — Daraon Jones (37), Luke Harrison (11), Evan Winchester (8), Chase Lockard (5), Trevon Hill (2), DeMarcus McKamey (2)
The Dragons beat a very good South Doyle team on Monday night by a score of 62-54.
Clinton took an early lead on the scoring of Hill, Harrison, and Jones. They appeared to be on the verge of a huge scoring run but the Cherokees fought back to cut the Dragon’s advantage to 12-10 at the end of the first quarter.
South Doyle — led by Brian Stewart a former assistant coach at Anderson County High School — more than matched Clinton bucket for bucket and took a 29-28 lead into the half.
Jones paced the Dragons in scoring in the third quarter but it was a 3-pointer by Chase Lockard at the buzzer that give the Dragons a 41-39 lead.
Clinton maintained a narrow lead throughout the fourth quarter. Leading 56-51 with 29.1 seconds left in the game, the Cherokees were called for an intentional foul on Jones, who sank both free throws to extend the lead seven points. A couple of seconds later he knocked down two more to seal the win.
“They absolutely kicked out tail on the boards. We didn’t do a good job of keeping them off of the glass and credit South Doyle. They are so quick to the rim it’s hard to block out sometimes. It’s tough to match up with them because they have speed in awkward positions - their four man and their three man is just as quick as their one or two,” said Chris Lockard, head coach of the Dragons.
“I thought we were able to hold our composure against their pressure...I liked our half-court offense. We didn’t shoot great but we hit some very key shots,” he said.
Jones led all scorers with 23 points while Hill added 15 points.
The Dragons will face Knoxville Catholic in the Heritage Christmas Tournament on Wednesday. The time is TBA. They will play in a tournament at Harriman next Friday.
SD 10 19 10 15 54
CHS 12 16 13 21 62
South Doyle — Kendrick Holland (15), Ralph Lee (11), Gus McAnally (10), Noah Wilkerson (8), Keshawn Colbert (8), Andrew Fraker (2), Preston Maynard (2)
CHS — Daraon Jones (23), Trevon Hill (15), Luke Harrison (8), Evan Winchester (6), Chase Lockard (5), Andrew Shoopman (3)
