Clover girls’ basketball defeats Irmo, is one win away from ultimate glory

The Clover Blue Eagles used some outstanding shooting and a superb team defensive effort and routed the Irmo Yellow Jackets, 67-47, to win the 5A girls Upper State Championship at Bon Secours Arena in Greenville Saturday night.

The Blue Eagles made nine baskets from behind the arc, and the defense disrupted the Irmo offense, contested shots, and created turnovers which led to some easy transition baskets.

Aylesha Wade led the charge with 25 points before leaving with just more than three minutes remaining in the game. She is now the leading scorer in Clover history with 1,707 points.

Marianna Ballard joined her in double figures with 16 points.

Clover head coach Sherer Hopkins was extremely pleased with her team’s performance on both ends of the floor.

“It was a total team effort,” said Hopkins. “We had our best defensive game of the season tonight. That got us going, and it produced a lot of our offense with transition baskets. We really got on the boards well tonight.”

The 3-point shooting was better than usual, but not unexpected.

‘We really did a great job working the ball to the open player when we were in the set up offense. That left us open for most of our three-point goals,” added Hopkins. “Everyone contributed on that end of the floor.”

Irmo scored the first four points of the game, but the Blue Eagles battled back and took its first lead of the game when Taylor Thomas scored on a layup with 4:07 remaining in the opening period. Irmo regained the lead on a Maliyiah Mason layup and a free throw for a 13-11 advantage with 1:20 remaining in the period.

Clover came back with four straight points to end the quarter with a 15-13 cushion. Wade got both baskets on layups. The second one came after a perfect half-court pass from Ashley Farmer with 21 seconds remaining in the quarter.

The Blue Eagles opened the second period with a 10-0 run. Wade started it with a free throw. She followed with a three-pointer, and Farmer and Ballard nailed trey’s to complete the spurt, and it was 25-13 with 4:28 remaining in the first half.

After Alexis Aiken scored for Irmo, Wade responded with a trey which made it 28-15. That broke the school’s career scoring record, which was 1,704 points and previously held by Erin Wright.

Clover closed the first half with a 7-1 scoring spree for a 35-16 cushion. Farmer got a layup, LaDestiny Worthy drained a 3-pointer, and Ballard converted a pair of charity tosses in the run.

The key to the Blue Eagles’ surge in the second quarter was a defense, which limited the Yellow Jackets to only one field goal, and an offense, which produced five goals from beyond the arc.

The lead grew to 42-19 on a Wade basket with 4:58 left in the third period, but Irmo scored five straight points to slice the deficit to 42-24 at the midway point in the third period.

Clover responded. They closed the quarter with an 11-4 run to close the period with a 53-28 lead. Worthy got four points in the spree, and Ballard capped it with a 3-pointer from the right wing with five seconds left.

The assault continued into the final quarter. Wade opened it with a 3-pointer for a 56-28 lead, and the Blue Eagles coasted from there for the one-sided victory.

The Blue Eagles are 28-2 on the year, and they’ll play the state championship on Friday at 7 p.m. at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

This story was originally published February 29, 2020 at 8:04 PM.