Blue Devils beat Raiders on the road

Blue Devils beat Raiders on the road

West Memphis boys avenge loss to Nettleton By Billy Woods WM School District JONESBORO — The mental image of getting crossed over by Kevin Fulton on Jan. 11 stayed with West Memphis’ Cavin Paige for nearly a month.

He can now put it in the rear-view mirror.

Nettleton’s Fulton, who like Paige is a diminutive point guard in charge of making things happen for his offense, chased down a loose ball three-quarters of the way of the other end of the floor on Jan. 11 and then put a cross-over move on Paige on his way to dropping in a 10-foot floater with 2.3 seconds to play to give the Raiders a 39-37 win over the Blue Devils at Lehr Arena.

On Friday night at Nettleton High School, Paige got his revenge, holding Fulton to just 11 points and zero field goals in the second half and then dishing for a game-high 8 assists in West Memphis’ 55-48 win over the Raiders.

The victory pushes the Blue Devils (19-5 overall, 7-3 in the 5A-East Conference all alone in third place in league standings and awaiting an all-important game Tuesday night at home against Jonesboro.

Paige responded quickly after the game when asked if the final play of the previous game served as a source of motivation for him on Friday night.

“That (cross-over) last game made me get up on him closer this time,” said Paige, who added 8 points to the cause. “I stopped him from going left sometimes because when he goes to his left that’s when he’s going for his jump shot. When he goes right, he’s going to attack (the basket) hard. He’s a good player, though.”

It was an efficient offensive performance and defensively, the Blue Devils proved to be the tougher team.

West Memphis held the Raiders to just 30 percent shooting on 12 of 40 shooting. The Blue Devils sank 16 of their 31 shots for 51.6 percent and they outrebounded the Raiders 31-21.

The overall effort made head coach Marcus Brown a proud man after the game.

“This team is capable of playing like this,” he said.

“As far as game management, making shots and getting the ball to guys that are hot, we did what we were supposed to do.

I’m happy with everything except the free-throw shooting.”

The Blue Devils won despite a 10 of 19 performance from the foul line, which included some big misses in the fourth quarter.

But the night was defined by the Blue Devil toughness and resiliency.

Except for a brief period at the start of the game in which Nettleton held a 5-2 lead, the Blue Devils were in command all the way.

They had a pair of ninepoint leads in the first and second halves.

But as Nettleton (12-7, 6-4) crept closer in the fourth quarter, trimming the West Memphis lead to 50-46 with 1:38 to play, the Blue Devils could have folded.

The Raiders saved themselves from a back-court violation with three acrobatic moves and scored on a layup by Kortez Hamilton to make it a two-possession game.

“Yeah, the scramble for that ball…I thought we just stood around and became spectators on that particular play,” Brown recalled.

“But overall, I think we imposed our will on them.” As shoddy as the freethrow shooting was down the stretch, senior Terry Burgess hit a pair with 1:09 to play that calmed things down for the Blue Devils, giving them a 52-46 lead.

As the game wound down to under a minute to play and West Memphis up 5348, West Memphis junior Chris Moore, who had 15 points and 13 rebounds, blocked a three-point attempt by Fulton and in the scramble for the loose ball, Paige was fouled.

He negotiated one out of two at the free-throw line and then Burgess did the same with 9 seconds to play to seal the win.

Brown was overly complimentary of his team’s offensive mind-set.

“Nettleton is very good when they get a chance to set their defense,” he said.

“Which made it important for us to get the ball moving and get out in transition, which is what we were able to do.”

Burgess tacked on 9 points for the Blue Devils while Immanuel Hoard and Corliss Brewer each scored 6.

Jarquavious Cain led Nettleton with 12 points and Marion McFadden hit 10.

Despite basking in the glow of the victory, Brown noted the urgency of Tuesday night’s game against Jonesboro.

“I’m urging every Blue Devil fan to show up and ready to support our guys on Tuesday,” he said. “Big, big game.”