Hazley steers Lady Devils to victory

Hazley steers Lady Devils to victory

Upon entering the game in the third quarter, Aryah Hazley led West Memphis on a 15- 3 run

WM School District With 3:49 remaining in the third quarter, Aryah Hazley had seen enough.

The West Memphis sophomore pulled off her warm-up and approached head coach Shelia Burns.

She was ready to enter the game.

After watching her Lady Devil teammates fumble passes, throw and kick balls out of bounds and basically making a mess of things, Hazley righted the West Memphis ship in the blink of an eye. As most in Lehr Arena could have probably predicted, she made the difference in her team's 47-38 victory on Friday night over Blytheville.

The plan was to completely hold out Hazley after she bruised her knee in the waning moments of last Tuesday's victory at Forrest City. But the game against Blytheville was at stake. The Lady Devils had trailed by 10 points and at the moment Hazley entered the game, the hosts were down 23-15.

'She approached me,' Burns said of Hazley. 'We weren't going to play her unless it was absolutely necessary.'

Well, it was very necessary because the Lady Devils were not going to beat Blytheville without Hazley.

All Hazley did was ignite a 15-3 West Memphis flurry to close out the quarter and give the Lady Devils a 30-26 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

'We had (Hazley) on ice for two days and we felt it really wasn't worth it to play her unless she felt comfortable,' said Burns.

'That's the way it was going to be, win or lose.

But I saw her midway through the third quarter taking off her warm-up and I said, 'are you sure?' and she said 'I'm ready.'' Hazley scored 8 points and assisted on two other baskets down the stretch.

Her three-pointer from the baseline with 1:07 left in the third quarter tied the game 26-26 and then she assisted on the go-ahead basket on a layup from junior Kenya Freeman.

The Lady Devils (12-9 overall, 8-4 in the 6A/5A-3 Conference) never trailed after that.

The first two-and-a-half quarters, however, were downright ugly. In fact, it was a turnover-fest for both teams. The Lady Devils ended the night with 26 turnovers, but the Lady Chicks (5-14, 2-10) were worse. They committed 29 turnovers.

'My off guards, I'm very disappointed they didn't play with more control,' Burns stated. 'Because we've worked on that. But when the lights come on they seem to have just one speed, and that's very fast.

They just can't pull themselves back from it.'

The Lady Devils maintained a five-to-sevenpoint lead the rest of the way, with Hazley sealing the win by knocking down two free throws with 19 seconds to play in the game to make it 45-38.

It's been over two decades since the Blytheville girls have beaten West Memphis, so it seemed like a good idea to hold out Hazley. But when the Lady Chicks led 9-6 at the end of one quarter and then built that eight-point lead midway through the third quarter, it looked like Burns had no other choice than to play Hazley.

She didn't look 100 percent, but Hazley at less than 100 percent is still better than most players at 100 percent.

Freeman did her part in helping in the comeback.

She led the Lady Devils in scoring with 15 points while sophomore center Tierra Bradley, herself nursing a sore ankle, pitched in 10. Tatyana Burks, a senior, and sophomore Jamee Gholson put in 4 apiece.

Blytheville got 15 points from Laurissa Campbell and 11 from Alandavia Lockett.

The West Memphis girls travel to Jonesboro tonight.

By Billy Woods