Lady Devils stage comeback over Valley View

Lady Devils stage comeback over Valley View

Hazley’s nine- point tear seals the deal against Lady Blazers

WM School District She may be a sophomore, but Aryah Hazley has rarely looked like it this season.

For yet another time, Hazley put her West Memphis Lady Devil teammates on her shoulders and willed them to victory.

Hazley scored her team's final nine points as the Lady Devils rallied from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit last Saturday at Lehr Arena for a 53-50 victory over Valley View.

On Friday night, the Lady Devils (10-9 overall, 6-4 in the 6A/5A-3 Conference) rallied again, this time from a 16-point deficit, but couldn't pull it out in the end as Paragould held on for a 40-32 win.

Hazley, the game's top scorer with 24 points, is by far the West Memphis girls' leading scorer this season, but the gimmick defenses on her have just now begun. Valley View used a boxand- one on Hazley in the second half on Saturday.

'It took us a couple of minutes to realize (Valley View) was really pinching in on that box-and-one,' said West Memphis head coach Shelia Burns. 'We tried to run our motion offense against that zone. We were a little bit surprised by the box-and-one because we hadn't seen it before. We will be prepared for it from here on.'

Valley View (11-7, 6-3) led 48-41 with 4:25 despite the Lady Devils controlling most of the afternoon. Fellow sophomore Tierra Bradley, who scored 11 points, kick-started the Lady Devil late rally by converting a three-point play with 4:04 to play to cut Valley View's lead to 48-44. Bradley and Hazley both spent time on the bench for different reasons in the third quarter, and it opened the door for Valley View to seize the momentum,. Hazley picked up her third foul and only spent just under two minutes on the bench.

Bradley, however, tweaked her ankle, which was injured two weeks ago at Greene County Tech. When she exited the game she headed to the training room for more treatment.

'It's been a nagging injury for her and I don't think it will get fully well until the season is over,' Burns said of Bradley. 'She'll just have to play through it.'

But once the duo returned the rest of the Lady Devils on the floor picked up their game.

'When any one of our starters go out, it kind of shocks us for a few minutes,' Burns commented. 'It takes us a little time to overcome that.'

Valley View's Reagan Dodd, who scored 18 points, hit a layup to extend the visitors' lead to 50-44 with 3:59 to play in the game. That's when Hazley took over.

She drained four straight free throws without a miss to make it a 50-48 game and then with 1:05 to play she swished a three-pointer from the baseline to give her team the lead for good.

Although Hazley added two more free throws with 14.3 seconds to play, it didn't ice the game. Valley View had one more chance, but Macy Moody, who hit five treys on the day and scored 19 points, hurried a long three-point attempt and it drew nothing but air.

Kyla Proctor added 10 points for West Memphis against Valley View.

On Friday, the Lady Devils found themselves down 16 points twice in the third quarter, but rallied to tie the game when Hazley canned another three-pointer with 6:26 to play in the game.

But the West Memphis girls couldn't scratch the scoreboard the rest of the way and Paragould ended the night with eight straight points.

Hazley poured in 14 points to lead the Lady Devils while Proctor had 5 and Bradley and Jamee Gholson pumped in 4 points apiece.

The Lady Devils will travel to Forrest City on Tuesday.

By Billy Woods