Lady Devils fall in season finale

Lady Devils fall in season finale

West Memphis girls put a cap on roller-coaster year

WM School District MOUNTAIN HOME — A very difficult season was put to rest here Friday night for the West Memphis Lady Devils.

The Lady Devils overcame a pair of eight-point deficits in the first half and then watched as Mountain Home made all the plays down the stretch in a 49-41 West Memphis loss.

West Memphis ends with a 13-11 record overall and a 6-8 mark in the 5A-East Conference. The Lady Devils failed to qualify for the state tournament, but understandably so.

Their journey began with one near tragedy and one tragedy that struck the nerve of everyone involved in the program.

Just days before the start of the season, long-time head coach Shelia Burns was struck with a brain aneurysm in her office before practice at Lehr Arena. Burns has since made remarkable recovery and she has attended a few Lady Devil games this season, including Friday’s game at Mountain Home.

In her stead, interim head coach Sonja Tate was dealt a tough hand, including the biggest tragedy of all, the death of senior Jatava Murray, who was killed in an auto accident during the Thanksgiving holidays.

Through it all, the Lady Devils tried to pull it all together and actually stayed in contention for a state tournament berth up until the final week.

“I’ll say one thing, these girls would not quit,” said Tate. “They showed some heart.”

The Lady Devils found themselves down 9-1 to start the game and later they trailed 20-12 midway through the second quarter.

But each time, the visitors made runs of their own and actually led 22-20 at halftime.

“I tell them no matter what happens, you gotta continue to play,” Tate said. “If you don’t respond soon enough, things start to snowball on you.”

For the second game in a row, leading scorer Aryah Hazley went scoreless in the first quarter before turning it on. Her first basket opened the second quarter when she stole a ball near mid-court and turned it into a layup. Hazley went on to score just 6 points in the first half before scoring 16 second-half points, leading all scorers with 22.

Hazley sank two free throws with two seconds to play to give West Memphis the lead at halftime.

In the end, however, Mountain Home (17-10, 9-5) got some big baskets from Payton Huskey, playing the final home game of her career, to break away from the Lady Devils.

Mountain Home made 9 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the deal. Huskey made all four of her charities and led her team in scoring with 18 points.

Dampening the Lady Devil hopes was sophomore Ta’Nya Burnett drawing her fourth foul with 4:31 left in the fourth quarter with the visitors trailing just 37-35.

When she exited the Lady Bombers scored four straight points.

Burnett eventually fouled out with 2:16 to play in the game.

Burnett added 6 points to the Lady Devil offense while Chyna Alls had 4 points and Cortasia Hollins scored 3.

Mountain Home also got 13 points from Anna Grace Foreman and 11 from Kate Gilbert. The Lady Bombers clinched third place in the conference and will play Thursday at 1 p.m. against Sheridan.

After the game, Tate assured that her team will “be back.”

“We’ve got some talent to build on,” she said. “We have a lot of girls back next year and we’ll get to work on building them up and getting ready for next season.”

By Billy Woods