Dragons end 12-year drought against Oak Ridge

Trace Thackerson seals comeback win with ‘trey’ at the buzzer

February 9, 2022 by Richard Evans

In perhaps the most electric atmosphere in the history of the Don Lockard Gymnasium, the Clinton Dragons defeated the Oak Ridge Wildcats 51-50 last Friday on a buzzer-beater by Trace Thackerson.

It was Clinton’s first win over Oak Ridge since 2010.

“This game is always intense,” said Chris Lockard, head coach of the Dragons.

“I thought offensively we were much more fluid. They did a pretty good job of trying to take Jack [Jackson Garner] out of the game, and we used that to our advantage. It came down to which team could make stops in the biggest moments of the game,” Lockard continued.

The Wildcats took a 17-12 lead early and built a 29-18 lead at the half. In past years that might have been enough to discourage the Dragons and take the crowd out of the game, but Friday night was different.

The Dragons trimmed the Wildcats lead to 42-36 in the third quarter and battled back to tie the game in the fourth quarter. With 12 seconds remaining and the score tied at 48-48, the Wildcats scored with three seconds on the clock to take a 50-48 lead, and it looked like so many close calls in previous games against Oak Ridge. However, somebody forgot to tell the Dragons the game was over. After inbounding the ball into the front court and a quick timeout, Clinton had a little more than two seconds to get off a shot. Thackerson inbounded the ball and got a return pass to fire up a 3-pointer from the wing. Time expired with the ball in the air and the ball found the bottom of the basket as the Donnie Dome erupted into bedlam as the home faithful celebrated the win.

“It was a really hard-fought game. I thought the full court inbounds play that we ran gave us an opportunity to get a shot at the game. We had options to tie the game and options to win it. They [Oak Ridge] took away the tie part and Thackerson stepped up and made a huge shot,” Lockard said.

Thackerson led the Dragons with 13 points while Blauvelt added 12 points.

OR 17 12 13 8 50

CHS 12 6 18 15 51

Oak Ridge - Kell Slater (15), Nick Dallas (13), Jamison Uptgraft (10), Lucas Searcy (7), Flip Thompson (5)

CHS - Trace Thackerson (13), Jeremiah Blauvelt (12), Jackson Garner (8), Rishon Bright (8), Lane Harrison (8), Dodi Truss (2)