Blue Eagle boys basketball team continues upward trend

Readying themselves to defend their Region 3-AAAA championship, the Clover High School boys’ basketball team continued its early-season success Friday at home.

The Blue Eagles defeated always-tough Hunter Huss 62-50 to remain unbeaten for the season at 3-0.

After building a 25-15 halftime lead, Clover expanded the lead with an 18-10 third-quarter advantage.

Huss rallied briefly in the fourth quarter, scoring 25 points, but the home-standing Blue Eagles won by a dozen.

Junior guard Quise Robbins continued his early-season scoring spree with a 22-point effort. Aaron Milner also finished in double-figures with 12 points.

Rounding out a balanced scoring attack, Aaron Milner finished in double figures with 12 points and blocked nine shots. Jeremiah Bass scored 9 points, JD Jacobus and Justin White, 7 each; Andrew White, 3; and RJ Williams and Noah Lindsay, one point each.

“We played great defense through three quarters, then got a little sloppy,” said Clover head coach Bailey Jackson. “We were able to execute some things on offense.

“Aaron Milner led our defense with nine blocks.”

Earlier in the week, the Blue Eagles defeated South Pointe 60-48 before the home crowd.

Clover fell behind 16-11 in the first quarter before taking charge of the proceedings in the second quarter to lead 36-27 at the half.

Robbins got the second-quarter surge started with a three-pointer, followed by a basket by White that knotted the score at 16-all.

Robbins scored the next two baskets, including another three that pushed Clover’s lead to 21-16.

After South Pointe sliced the lead to two at 21-19, White dazzled the visitors with a skyhook that pushed the lead back to four. Williams and Dre Starr scored the next two baskets and the Blue Eagles were off and running.

After the Blue Eagles expanded the lead to 56-35 in the third quarter, South Pointe rallied briefly in the fourth quarter.

But it wasn’t enough, and Clover nailed down the double-digit win.

“We played good at times in the first half,” Jackson said after the game. “We were a little sloppy in the second quarter at times, but then, in the third quarter, we came out and played man-to-man. Our defense was pretty good.”

Jackson added: “We can be a really good defensive team. Whether or not we’re gonna be is up to those guys. We work on the same stuff all the time. They’ve been doing this three or four years, so they certainly know what to do.

“It’s just a matter if can we find about 10 guys that are gonna go out there and do it every night,” Jackson said.

With Jackson rotating players in the second half, a lot of team members got into the game.

“They practice hard and we wanted to get them in the game,” he said. “We knew South Pointe was short-handed and we took control of the game. I figured it wouldn’t do us any good to blow them out, so we might as well let everybody play.”

Jackson talked about the key to success in future games, including region play.

“We think we need to focus more for longer stretches of time,” he said. “We need to shoot better. We need to make a real effort to play defense all the time and not turn the ball over.”

Robbins addressed the team’s slow start in the first quarter.

“We went in the locker room knowing we weren’t focused very well in the first half,” Robbins said. “It seems like we came out lazy, not playing with heart out there.

“We came out in the second half looking to play stronger. When we play focused, it puts a smile on coach’s face,” Robbins said.

Robbins said the Blue Eagles devote a lot of time to defense every day at practice.

“I prefer to score in transition off defense,” he said. “Whenever we get all the players involved, we are successful.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Blue Eagle boys basketball team continues upward trend."