Lady Raiders down Lady Devils

Lady Raiders down Lady Devils

Futility late in the game dooms WM girls

WM School District JONESBORO — The basket had a lid on it in the second half here Tuesday night for the West Memphis Lady Devils.

The West Memphis girls scored zero field goals in the final 12:21 of the contest to pave the way for a 49-29 loss to Nettleton.

West Memphis' Keara Williams hit a layup with 3:39 left in the third quarter for the visitors' final field goal of the game. That sliced Nettleton's lead to 31-27.

From there, the Lady Devils (4-3 overall, 0-1 in the 6A/5A-East Conference) scored just two free throws while Nettleton broke open the tight game scoring 18 points during that span.

'We didn't get off to our normal good start,' said West Memphis head coach Shelia Burns. 'We struggled offensively all night, but Nettleton's good. They are probably the best team in the conference. All the coaches are predicting them to win it.'

The win pushed the Lady Raiders to 7-0.

Nettleton jumped out on the Lady Devils in the first quarter, building a 13-2 lead before the visitors finally got something going.

Senior outside ace Taylor Johnson connected on two straight three-pointers and from there the Lady Devils stayed within striking distance until the drought began in the third quarter.

'We'd cut their lead to three or four and then we'd miss a defensive rotation,' Burns explained. 'They'd then go on a little run and we just couldn't answer back.'

Two straight layups by Tatyana Burks early in the third quarter trimmed Nettleton's lead to 26-25, but the Lady Raiders immediately answered with a three-pointer from Jordan Elder.

That was the closest the West Memphis girls would get the rest of the way.

Burks paced West Memphis with 9 points while Johnson and Ty Bullins added 6 each.

Dasia Young led Nettleton with a game-high 15 points while Bailey Booker pumped in 12 and Elder scored 10.

By Billy Woods