Blue Devils invade Patriot Arena tonight

Blue Devils invade Patriot Arena tonight

West Memphis and Marion clash on the basketball court in key conference showdown

By the Times Sports Staff

sports @ theeveningtimes .com

With only three weeks left in the 2018-19 basketball season, every game is important, but for the Marion Patriots and the West Memphis Blue Devils, a chance to square off again in any sport is always welcome.

And when teams are jockeying for playoff position late in the season, it adds an extra layer of drama.

Such will be the case this evening when the Blue Devils take the short trip north up Highway 77 to take on the Patriots in Marion. The Patriot boys are currently sitting pretty atop the 5A East Conference standings (10-0), with the Blue Devils close behind in a three-way logjam for second with The Jonesboro Hurricane and the Nettleton Raiders (52). Tonight’s contest is the first game of the second meetings between the 5A teams that runs through Feb. 21.

While in the girls division, it appears to be Nettleton and then everybody else. The Lady Raiders are undefeated in 5A play this season (9-0). The Lady Patriots are 4-3, sharing identical records with Paragould. Mountain Home and Jonesboro. The Ladt Devils are only one game back (3-4) in the standings though, so a win tonight would put the ladies in the talks about how the playoff seedings will fall.

Last month, the Patriots came away with a rare sweep against the Blue Devils in Lehr Arena.

In the Jan. 4 match-up, the Patriots came out of the locker room proving they were ready for the task. Marion’s defense blocked three shots in the first quarter and held an athletic West Memphis team to just eight points.

West Memphis proved that you can not get comfortable in a rivalry game.

Marion led 25-8 before the Blue Devils went on a 16-0 run to trim the Marion lead to one. The Pats saw their big lead evaportate but they still led 27-24 at half-time.

The Patriots outscored the Devils 36-28 in the second half. Marion was able to keep the Devil offense at bay, despite four three-pointers from West Memphis junior forward Tmmanual Hoard, who led all scorers in the game with 22 points.

Last month’s West Memphis vs. Marion girls’ game saw the Lady Devils bolt to an early lead, only to fade in the end and see Marion come out on top as the Lady Pats rallied from an early deficit to defeat the Lady Devils 47-43.

In that game, West Memphis broke out to leads of 5-0 in the first quarter and 16-11 by the early moments of the second quarter. The Lady Devils even led at halftime 22-18 before Marion broke a 3434 tie at the end of three quarters to own the final eight minutes.

The Lady Devils led twice in the fourth quarter, at 39-36 after a layup by Tierra Bradley, who came off the bench to score 8 points. Bradley also stuck back a missed shot with 2:35 to play to give her team its final lead at 41-40. But Marion’s Joi Montgomery, who served as a Lady Devil spoiler last season, did it again to West Memphis. She hit a tum-around jumper from mid-range at the 2:16 mark to give the visitors the lead for good.

The final dagger came in the form of two free throws by Tashlee Milow with 10.5 seconds to play to clinch the win for Marion.

The Lady Devils outrebounded Marion 33-26, but the category that hurt them most was in turnovers, where West Memphis turned it over 18 times to Marion’s 12. The biggest discrepancy in the game, however, was at the free-throw line. Marion had 27 freethrow attempts to West Memphis’ 3.

Round two is expected to be in front of a packed house and a raucous crowd. The girls tip of at 6 p.m., with the boys game to follow. Tickets are $5 apiece.

Last time these two teams met, the Marion Patriots took home the “W” and beat the Blue Devils on their home court. Tonight, Marion will be looking to make it two-for-two against West Memphis, this time inside Patriot Arena.

Photos by Billy Woods

It was a sweep for Marion last month as the Lady Pats held up their end of the deal, taking down the Lady Devils in a tough contest. West Memphis will be looking to avenge that loss and improve their spot in the 5A rankings with a big win on the road.