Lady Dragons’ comeback falls short
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Clinton’s Bailey Burroughs looks for an opening under the basket against Powell last week. - Ken Leinart
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Clinton’s all-world Sarah Burton faced double and triple teams from the Powell Lady Panthers during last Tuesday night’s game at the Donnie Dome. - Ken Leinart
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Clinton’s Addison Delcarmen runs the Lady Dragons’ offensive set while looking for an open shooter against Powell last Tuesday. - Ken Leinart
The Clinton Lady Dragons basketball team fell to visiting Powell last Tuesday by a score of 66-46.
The Lady Dragons endured a brutal first half as the Lady Panthers jumped out to a 17-7 lead in the first quarter.
Sarah Burton scored all of Clinton’s first-quarter points.
Powell pushed the lead to 29-11 at halftime as the Lady Dragons had a hard time scoring.
“We struggled offensively in the first half,” said Alicia Phillips, head coach of the Lady Dragons.
“With two starters out right now due to injury, we’re just going to have to find our way,” she said. “We’ve got young kids, but very talented kids. We’re just young right now so I think everyone was kind of looking to Sarah [Burton] and we’ve got to learn we’ve all got to be scorers.”
Clinton surged somewhat in the third quarter as Burton scored 12 of her team’s 18 points and the Lady Dragons trimmed the Powell lead to 42-29.
While Clinton managed to score consistently in the fourth quarter, it could not cut into the Lady Panthers’ advantage.
Burton led all scorers with 25 points. She is less than 100 points away from setting the record as the all-time scorer in Lady Dragons history.
Phillips also talked about the team and the immediate future.
“One of the starters out right now is our point guard Ally York,” she said. “She’s a freshman, but Ally is a phenomenal force. She sees the court so well and she can shoot the heck out of it.
“The other girl, also a freshman — Ellie Leander, is our defensive specialist,” Phillips said. “Ally and Ellie help us tremendously in our press. It’s really hard right now to generate anything from the defensive side.
“It’s good for the other girls to get experience,” she said. “They need to realize they’re going to have to step it up. It is early in the season, but we probably won’t have our full team together until around Christmas.”
The Lady Dragons return to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday when they visit district rival Anderson County in the district opener.
PHS 17 12 13 24 66
CHS 7 4 18 17 46
PHS - Cassidy Hill (21), Reagan Trumm (14), Aloina Schraeder (12), Cassie Sakhleh (10), Adisyn Smith (7), Reese Rolen (2)
CHS - Sarah Burton (25), Bailey Burroughs (7), Belle Starnes (5), Sydney Herrell (5), Ashaunti Davis (2), Autumn Hill (2)