Clinton girls use late shot to claim tourney title

The Clinton girls’ basketball team will enter the new season on a continued high after a late-game victory won the Carolina Invitational Atlantic Division title.

Taneal Evans hit a floating jump shot at the buzzer to give the Red Devils, ranked No. 2 in the most-recent SCBCA Class 3A rankings, a 53-52 victory over Cane Bay in Summerville.

Clinton led the game by 10 points in the third quarter before Cane Bay rallied back to take the lead by six with less than one minute to go before Clinton rallied back and won at the buzzer.

Tournament MVP De’Shanti Watts scored 20 points to lead the Red Devils, while all-tournament pick Savanna Campbell had 17 points. Terriauna Bennett was also named to the all-tournament team.

Laurens girls: The Laurens girls’ basketball team could not find the offensive spark it had in the previous two games of the Raider Rumble and lost the championship game of the tournament to Hillcrest, 53-26.

Laurens was held to seven field goals in the game by Hillcrest, which used a 13-3 run to start the second quarter to pull out to a 16-point lead. Hillcrest ended any hope of a comeback by outscoring Laurens 15-4 in the third quarter.

Qua Fortson was named to the all-tournament team, while teammate Aija Davis was an honorable mention pick.

LA girls: The Crusaders settled for fourth place at the Lowe’s Roundball Classic after dropping their second straight game in Chesnee, losing 52-43 against Gaffney in the third-place game.

Ruthie Moore had 16 points and Jennifer Wu added 10 for the Crusaders. Moore was named to the all-tournament team for her play in the tournament.