ARROWS ADVANCE TO CHAMPIONSHIP BASKETBALL TOURMAENT AGAIN

BY  Danny C. Davis

special to The Clinton Courier

For the third time in  the last three years the Clinton Arrow boy’s basketball team is headed to the MHSAA  State Championship basketball series at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.

Clinton( 22-6) defeated Madison Central on February 23 rd 46-34 in the Class 7A North quarterfinals at Mississippi Valley State University  to advance to the championship series.

The Arrows will meet Brandon  (18-11) in the Class 7A semifinals  who defeated  Harrison  Central 62-54 on F  on Thursday February 29 th at 1:30 pm.

A win over Brandon and CHS will advance to the Class 7A Championship game on March 2 against either Germantown or Meridian.

The Arrows fell to Brandon during the regular season 52-52.

Clinton won back to  back  Class 6A championships in 2021 and 2022.  Last year CHS fell to in the North Class  6A Quarterfinal 51-32 to  Starkville to finish 15-10.

 Arrow head  basketball coach Leonard Taylor, who will be stepping down after the basketball season to become an assistant principle at CHS, feels good about his last Arrow team going into the championship series.

“We played well against Madison Central and pulled away in the second half to get back here,” said Taylor, who led the Arrows to their 2022 Class 6A  state  Championship against Olive Branch 76-75.

“Our guys  know that we have to win Thursday or the season is  over,” said Taylor, a former Clinton High basketball player.  Brandon is very good and this  was a one point game with them during the regular season. We have a chance to win it all  for the third time in the last four years but we are only  focusing on playing  Brandon first on Thursday afternoon.