Dragons hang on for win against Karns

December 9, 2020 by Collin Riggs

The Clinton High School Dragons nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their game against Karns, but prevailed to win 83-81.

The Dragons hosted the Karns High School Beavers Tuesday, Dec.1.

Clinton took an early lead on the Beavers that they maintained throughout the first half, giving it up briefly early in the third period before regaining it again and climbing to a 15-point lead to start the fourth. In the fourth, though, the Dragons lost their footing, missing shots they’d been hitting all night long and committing multiple fouls to put the game close. The Beavers evened the score on a free throw with six seconds left, giving the Dragons the ball.

Jackson Garner rushed down the court to be fouled with two seconds left. Garner made both free throws, giving Karns the ball with two seconds left. The Beavers shot from half court and missed to give the Dragons the two-point win.

The Dragons pulled through by the skin of their teeth, making 19 shots out of 30 to Karns’s 19 out of 32, while the Dragons made 5 treys to Karns’s 10. The Dragons held a solid lead on free-throws alone, though, with the Beavers giving them 41 free throws and the Dragons pulling 30 points off of them. Meanwhile, Karns walked away only 13 points from free throws out of 27 chances. Karns pulled multiple technical fouls as the game heated up, and it goes to show how much those add up.

Jackson Garner once again led the Dragons on points with 27 points, 17 of which came from free throws, while behind him Rishon Bright finished with 16 points. Garner also finished with a steal, a block, and two assists. Lane Harrison and Trace Thackerson finished the night with 10 and 13 rebounds respectively, with Thackerson being the only Clinton played that fouled out of the game. Other high scorers for the Dragons were Tyler Morgan with 12 points and Harrison with 13.

Dragon’s head coach, Chris Lockard, was honest about the trouble the team had later in the game.

“I thought we played really well with the exception of the last three minutes. We were up 15 with two and a half minutes to go. We missed some free throws and got a little complacent. Some of that I believe was having no seniors on the floor. Not having that leadership in the last few minutes really hurt us. I think their big kid really gave us problems inside. He’s an exceptional player and we had trouble slowing him down. I think our biggest adjustment was getting the tempo up and getting him a little tired so we could get some separation.

“That all being said, our kids still found a way to win,” said Lockard. “That shows they’re very resilient and it’s better to learn lessons when you’ve won a game than when you lose. Hopefully we’ve corrected our mistakes going forward. It’s a huge district win for us. Karns went after Jackson Garner hard to limit his scoring, and he was still able to. Lane Harrison and Thackerson and Rishon all really stepped forward, and Tyler Morgan played an extremely good game. Overall, just a great win, and we’ll take it and move forward.”

Later, on Friday, Dec 4, Clinton hosted Jellico High School for a non-conference game. The Dragons walked away with a decisive 85-56 win after taking an early lead in the first quarter and outscoring Jellico in every single quarter except for the fourth.

In the game against Jellico, the Dragons finished in the green in almost every stat, only losing out to 3FG-percentage and free throws.

Lane Harrison was the lead scorer for the game with Jackson Garner out due to covid concerns. Harrison finished with 20 points, and, behind him, Trace Thackerson came in second with 16, while Rishon Bright finished with 15 to round out the top three. Bright also finished with six assists, while Thackerson finished with five assists and four steals. On rebounds, Tyler Morgan dominated both sides with 12 total (seven offensive and five defensive)



“I felt the Jellico game was a goo opportunity for me to work on things defensively that we haven’t had the opportunity to do,” said Lockard. “Our full court pressure defense was obviously the difference in the game. WE haven’t really had an opportunity to work on that very often with so many new kids. We made some adjustments at halftime and those really seemed to work well for us. Jellico has two extremely good guards and we played that game without Garner.



“I felt like Lane Harrison really stepped up offensively that game. Tyler Morgan did an extremely good job inside, and Jeremiah Blauvelt gave us a big spark on offense. Doughty Truss and Joshua Keith both had good nights too.”