Blue Devils handle Mountain Home

Blue Devils handle Mountain Home

West Memphis wins in final tune-up before State Tournament

WM School District MOUNTAIN HOME — Head coach Marcus Brown declared the West Memphis Blue Devil ready for the postseason after his team defeated Mountain Home worse than the 57-46 final score would indicate.

The Blue Devils (23-5 overall, 11-3 in the 5A-East Conference and ranked No. 7 in the Arkansas Sports Media Poll) will play Thursday in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament Thursday at 5:30 p.m. against El Dorado, the third-place team from the South.

With his team’s postseason fate already determined, Brown played a loose rotation at Mountain Home. He went with a starting lineup that now has been in place for the last four games, which included the insertion of senior center Mark Robinson, who has added strength and another inside presence to take some of the pressure off ace low-post player and leading scorer Chris Moore.

But Brown also played an 11-man rotation that limited Moore to just 18 minutes.

However, when the starters played, they dismantled the Bombers (9-17, 4-10).

Moore, who scored a game-high 16 points to go along with 12 rebounds, displayed some range on his shot, making a few mid-range along with a 30-foot three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, which gave the Blue Devils a 2721 lead at intermission.

But with all the starters on the floor to open the second half, it was all West Memphis as the Blue Devils ran out to a 49-26 lead on the strength of 4 of 5 shooting from three-point range.

“We wanted to come in tonight and tune up and not show a lot,” said Brown.

“Guys did a good job being focused and I’m super proud of that. I thought defensively we were locked in.”

The Blue Devils excelled in all statistical categories except free-throw shooting. For the second straight game they shot a much better percentage from the field than they did from the free-throw line.

Connecting on 22 of 40 from the field, the Blue Devils shot 55 percent, compared to 33 percent from the free-throw line (6 of 18). They also made good on 6 of 12 from the three-point line and also committed a season-low 7 turnovers.

Contributing to the surge was senior Corliss Brewer, who had three three-pointers and 13 points, a somewhat misleading figure since Brewer, like the rest of the starters, did not play a lot of minutes.

“I started subbing early to rest my starters and trying to stay healthy for the state tournament,” said Brown.

The hot three-point shooting was especially pleasing to the Blue Devil chief.

“We were able to get some good looks at the basket because of the ball movement on offense,” he said. “The defense collapsed on us as it usually does, but we had some guys penetrate and then dish to the open man on the perimeter.”

Moore scored 12 of his total in the first half as he was barely challenged when he received the ball in the post. Seniors Terry Burgess and Cavin Paige added 6 points as did seldom-used Daveon Doolittle.

Having won their last six games, Brown said his team is ready for the state tournament.

“I feel good about it,” he said. “We’re going in on a positive note. We feel like we’re going to make a good showing. I think our guys are focused on the goal at hand.”

By Billy Woods