Loss to Patriots has Blue Devils renewing focus

Loss to Patriots has Blue Devils renewing focus

Coach Brown: ‘We’re going to have to get down and dirty and find our identity’

By Billy Woods

WM School District With one half of the 5AEast Conference season complete the Marion Patriots are establishing themselves as the team to beat, not only in league play, but also for the upcoming state tournament.

Once again Detric Reeves proved to be the Blue Devil killer as he scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Patriots to a season- sweep over West Memphis with a 55-48 win on Friday night at Patriot Arena.

The Pats (15-3 overall, 80 in the conference) already own a home win over Jonesboro and the season sweep over West Memphis, the two teams which appear to be the only serious challengers to the Patriots.

For the Blue Devils it was the same story as it was on Jan. 4 when they fell 64-52 to the Patriots. With 6-foot-9 senior center Timothy Ceasar playing behind West Memphis’ Chris Moore and another defender fronting the Blue Devils’ star forward, it was difficult for the Blue Devils to get Moore enough touches to make an impact on the game.

Moore scored 10 points and had 9 rebounds.

“We couldn’t feed the post…we don’t know how to feed the post,” said West Memphis head coach Marcus Brown. “We’re teaching it, but we can’t do it. We’ve got Chris inside and we’ve got all kind of different sets to get him the ball and we end up looking for all the guys on the outside.”

On the other end it was just too much Reeves.

The junior shooting guard hit from an array of shots on the floor.

He made shots off the dribble.

He made shots off balance.

He made shots from deep.

“We had no answer for Reeves tonight,” Brown added.

Reeves has scored 20 points or more in four of his five career games against West Memphis.

The Blue Devils got off to a decent enough start.

They led 11-10 after one quarter and had a 13-12 lead after a Moore dunk with 5:42 to play in the second quarter.

But the Patriots surged ahead for a 24-21 lead at halftime.

Just as West Memphis’ Terry Burgess, who had an off night with just 2 points, picked up his third foul in the opening seconds of the third quarter, Marion reeled off 8 straight points to seize the momentum for the rest of the game.

Standing just 5-foot-9, West Memphis junior Immanuel Hoard doesn’t pass the eye test for shooting guards, but he lit up Marion for a team-high 14 points, including a layup with 2:48 to play in the game to cut the Patriots’ lead to 46-42.

However, after a West Memphis timeout, the Patriots swung the game back their way with a free throw by Keyshawn Woods and two more foul shots from Reeves for a 4942 lead with just 1:17 to play.

“Our kids played hard,” said Brown. “But we dug ourselves a hole there early in the third quarter. We’re going to have to get down and dirty and find our identity.”

Point guard Cavin Paige scored 12 points for West Memphis, but he had an uncharacteristically bad floor game, finding himself on the minus end of assists to turnovers.

Paige had 3 assists to 5 turnovers.

Tristan Haymon added 10 points for Marion while Ceasar had 8 and Woods scored 6.

Above: Blue Devils’ Chris Moore (2) jams one against Marion. Below: The Blue Devils were led in scoring by junior Immanuel Hoard (22) against Marion.

Photos by Billy Woods