Landry Clifton and Neely McMannen secure win for Croatan

By Team Reports Feb 17, 2024, 8:37pm

Recap: Croatan Cougars vs. White Oak Vikings

The Croatan Cougars waltzed into their game on Friday with two straight wins but they left with three. They had just enough and edged White Oak out 31-28. This was payback for Croatan, who suffered a 45-34 defeat the last time these two teams met.

Leading Croatan to victory were Landry Clifton and Neely McMannen. Clifton scored nine points along with three steals, while McMannen scored 11 points along with six rebounds. Sunny Johnson was another key contributor, scoring six points.

When it comes to explaining why White Oak lost, one person who can't be blamed is Zamarah Rawls. Despite the final result, she almost dropped a triple-double on ten points, nine rebounds, and 52 blocks. Rawls hasn't dropped below two steals for 13 straight games. Another player making a difference was Denniyah Tanner, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds and four steals.

Croatan is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a massive bump to their 10-9 record this season. As for White Oak, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 6-11.

Croatan will head out on the road to face off against Richlands at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are closely ranked in North Carolina (Richlands is ranked 283rd, while Croatan is ranked 285th). As for White Oak, they will head out on the road to challenge Swansboro at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Swansboro focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 30 on Friday.

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