Blue Devils fall in final four

Blue Devils fall in final four

West Memphis’s state tourney run ends in loss to Little Rock Hall

WM School District PEARCY — No matter how deep a team goes in the state tournament, the final loss is always a gut punch.

So it went for the West Memphis Blue Devils here Saturday night as they wound up on the short end of a 43-38 score against Little Rock Hall in the 5A state semifinals.

The Blue Devils also fell short of a highly anticipated rematch with Crittenden County neighbor Marion in the finals as the Patriots will face Hall for the championship after easily dispatching Lake Hamilton 60-46 in Saturday’s other semifinals.

When it was over, West Memphis head coach Marcus Brown, normally a highly strung bundle of energy during the game was calm and philosophical.

“In basketball there’s going to be a winner and a loser,” Brown said in a soft voice. “We came up short tonight, but man…I got some winners. Especially my seniors. I’m so proud of them, win or lose. I’m going to roll with them every day of the week.”

In a game between two normally fast-paced teams, the tempo slowed to a standstill in the second half. The Blue Devils (25-6) shot just 37 percent from the field (13 of 35) and committed 16 turnovers. Hall was 51 percent from the field on 17 of 33 and they turned it over 14 times.

The Blue Devils were 4 of 12 from three-point range and they outrebounded Hall 19-13.

West Memphis trailed at halftime 22-20, but grabbed the lead at 3029 after the third quarter.

Then junior guard Immanuel Hoard, who scored 7 points, converted a steal in the back-court to a layup on the other end for a 3229 Blue Devil cushion.

That’s where the game swung, according to Brown.

“(Hall) went to a matchup zone and we just stood around,” Brown explained.

“We were so stagnant and would not move to the open spot. Every time we came out of a timeout we BLUE DEVILS

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said we need to move to the open spots, but we just wouldn’t do it.”

Hall’s Gregory Johnson, who scored 8 points, hit a soft hook in the lane with 7:26 to play in the fourth quarter to bring the Warriors to within 32-31 and then senior Kevon Cooper, who led all scorers with 17 points, stole a ball and hit a layup to give his team the lead for good.

Hall outscored West Memphis 10-0 over a five-minute span in the fourth quarter to take a 3930 lead with 2:47 to play before Blue Devil senior Terry Burgess drained a free throw to stop the bleeding.

Senior Corliss Brewer gave the Blue Devils a lift with 1:45 to play when he stole an inbounds pass and hit a short jumper in the lane while being fouled to make it 41-38 Hall. But Brewer missed his free throw.

Still, the Blue Devils had a final chance with 11 seconds to play and still down by the same score. They took a timeout and drew up a play. However, Hall trapped West Memphis’ Chris Moore, who scored 15 points to lead his team in scoring, and he threw a cross-court pass over the head of Brewer and out of bounds, which sealed the fate.

“These kids were prepared for everything Hall threw at us,” said Brown.

“They played the lanes and we didn’t get into the open spots. All that’s on me. I didn’t put them in good enough spots to execute.”

In his final game as a Blue Devil, senior point guard Cavin Paige, who set the school record for assists this season, scored 7 points. Brewer hit 5 and Burgess scored 4.

Hall’s Cooper and Johnson got support from Montavious Dismuke and point guard Jonathan Coleman, who had 10 and 6 points

respectively.

By Billy Woods