Unity propels Blue Devils over Pats

Unity propels Blue Devils over Pats

West Memphis shoots 53 percent from the field to outlast Patriots

WM School District With each flick of his wrists, it seemed Marion sophomore Detrick Reeves moved further and further behind the three-point circle, and all the West Memphis Blue Devils could do was watch the ball rip the cords.

Reeves, who has averaged 37.8 points in his last four games, was practically unstoppable Tuesday night at Lehr Arena by scoring a game-high 29 points, but West Memphis clearly had too many weapons and options for the Patriots to overcome.

Sophomore Chris Moore was a force inside, getting a near triple-double, and teammate Curtis Washington, a senior, hit a teamhigh 21 points to lead the Blue Devils to a 74-62 victory before a capacity crowd at Lehr Arena.

Marion (9-5 overall, 3-4 in the 6A/5A-3 Conference) feature two slickshooting guards in Reeves and senior Martinez Harper. The duo combined for 43 of the Patriots' 62 points.

But West Memphis (13-2, 6-1) is probably the most balanced team in the league. The Blue Devils placed three players in double figures against Marion.

Plus, the Blue Devils drained 21 of 28 free throws in the victory.

To hear West Memphis first-year head coach Marcus Brown tell it, you'd have thought his team lost.

When asked about Marion's Reeves, Brown replied, 'He's got talent, but we didn't cover him all night. We may have contested about six or seven of his shots. When we tell you don't let the guy catch the ball, by (golly) don't let him catch the ball.'

The Blue Devils led wireto- wire and even threatened on several occasions to put the game out of reach very early in the game. They jumped out 20-8 on Marion in the first quarter and Brown subbed out three of his starters to open the second quarter. The result was

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Photo by Billy Woods Reeves shooting the Patriots back in it, 24-22 with 4:37 left in the first half.

That's when Brown summoned his starters back in.

However, he was critical of his bench, which he wants to develop as the season progresses.

'We got guys off the bench coming in and not wanting to give max effort,' he said. 'You can't be coming in cool from the bench. We let (Reeves) get comfortable out there and he burned us badly.'

With the reemergence of the Blue Devil starters, the score quickly shot back up in West Memphis' favor.

The Blue Devils scored the next 14 points to take a 3822 lead.

WMHS led at the half, 3824.

Brown's squad hit two more brief lulls in the second half, but for every Reeves trey and Harper basket, the Blue Devils merely answered back with a nifty move from Sidney Stinson, who scored 12 points, or a few garbage baskets from the king of garbage baskets Zachary Byrd, who had 12 points and 6 rebounds.

The biggest factor in the game, however, was the defense of Moore, who compiled 14 points, 11 rebounds and 9 blocks.

'What I didn't like was our guards getting beat off the dribble,' Brown retorted.

'Thank goodness for Chris being back there and swatting a lot of those shots away.'

Harper swished two free throws with 4:07 left in the game to trim West Memphis' lead to 56-51. But again, the Blue Devils answered every distress call.

Goals by Washington, Stinson and Moore and a free throw by Washington gave the Blue Devils a 6856 cushion with 1:41 to play.

As expected, the Blue Devils owned the backboards on the night, outrebounding Marion 33-25 and the hosts shot 53 percent from the field (26 of 49). Marion, meanwhile, negotiated only 38.9 percent of its shots (23 of 59).

Brown did manage to find something he liked from his team.

'Ball movement on offense was really good,' he said. 'We also played well in transition. We were able to get the ball off the glass to (point guard Cavin Paige) up the floor to create some numbers for us.'

Paige was once again an excellent facilitator with 8 assists and just 2 turnovers. Senior C.J. Prackett added 8 points for West Memphis. Marion also got 6 points from Makyi Boyce.

The Blue Devils travel to Wynne on Friday night.

By Billy Woods