Championship bound! Eau Claire girls basketball defeat Clinton, earn spot in 2A game
Eau Claire’s surprising postseason run has one final stop — the state championship game.
The Shamrocks defeated Clinton, 41-30, in the Class 2A Girls Upper State championship game on Tuesday at the Florence Center.
With the win, Eau Claire advances to Saturday’s title game at noon against defending state champion Andrew Jackson, which dismantled Lake City 96-33, in the other semifinal game.
It is Eau Claire’s first state championship appearance since 1998. The Shamrocks, whose last state championship came in 1993, were in their first semifinal appearance since 2010.
“I am overwhelmed,” Eau Claire coach Ashley Gilmore said. “The girls said they wanted to go to Florence at the beginning of the year and we stayed faithful in our work ethic and we kept pushing. Now, we are going to the ‘ship. It hasn’t been done since 1998. We are excited about what has happened to us this season.”
Gilmore is no stranger to championship games, having won two as a player at Hunter Kinard-Tyler in 2005-06. But now, she is glad to be able to take this year’s squad on the championship run.
The game was a third of the season between the Shamrocks and Red Devils, members of Region 3-2A. Clinton defeated EC, 36-28 and 34-31 on back-to-back nights on Feb. 6-7.
But behind big performances from Destinee Tiller, Milaysha Chisholm and Sytiria Bethel and a strong defensive effort, the Shamrocks made sure they won the one that mattered.
“It got down to do or die and my girls knew they didn’t want to go home,” Gilmore said. “I have six seniors and they know they want to go all the way. They kept digging.”
Eau Claire held Clinton to its second-lowest output of the season, which happened against Concord Christian (36-25). Tiller, Chisholm and Bethel combined for 37 of the team’s 41 points and were part of two key spurts for the Shamrocks.
Eau Claire jumped out to a 9-0 start and led 15-10 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Tiller took things over by scoring eight of her 14 during the third and her breakaway layup gave the Shamrocks a 26-18 lead.
“In the locker room, we talked about defense so once we started getting stops and steals, it opened up things from offense,” Tiller said.
Then Bethel, who finished with 10 points, drained a 3-pointer from the corner to make it 30-19. She hit another big 3-pointer in the fourth put EC up 35-25 with 6:43. Then Chisholm’s steal and three-point play put things away at 38-28 with 2:49. Chisholm finished with 13 points.
McKenzie Clark led Clinton with seven points.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 8:50 PM.
