Men's Basketball | 3/4/2024 7:14:00 AM

The Clinton Arrows dropped a 54-50 decision against the Meridian Wildcats on Saturday night in the MHSAA 7A State Championship game.  The Arrows finished as the State Runners-up with an overall record of 23-7.

The Arrows fell behind in the 1st quarter as the Wildcats jumped out to a 17-9 lead after the first 8 minutes.  The Arrows played a more even 2nd quarter but went into halftime down 29-20.  The 3rd quarter was dominated by the Arrows as they clawed their way back into the ballgame, and the score after the 3rd quarter was 37-34 in favor of the Wildcats. The Arrows would tie the ballgame several times and took the lead in the 4th quarter, but the Wildcats made enough free throws at the end to keep the game out of reach and get to the final score of 54-50.

As a team, the Arrows shot 7-of-23 from behind the arc to outscore the Wildcats 21-12 from 3-point range.  The kryptonite for the Arrows, however, was the 1st half performance from the free throw line.  The Arrows went 1-for-8 from the charity stripe in the 1st half, and only shot 2 free throws in the 2nd half.  The Wildcats, on the other hand, were 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the 1st half and were given 17 free throws in the 2nd half.  The Wildcats outscored the Arrows 20-3 from the free throw line in the game.

Individually for the Arrows, MHSAA 7A Mr. Basketball Trey Alexander led the way with 21 points on 9-of-20 shooting on the night.  Alexander also had 4 rebounds and 3 steals as he played the entire 32 minutes of action.  Zakariyea Hamilton and Kameron Wilkes both had 7 points and 5 rebounds.  Shiloh Freeman added another 7 points for the Arrows on 3-of-5 shooting.