Blue Devils cruise to win over Greene County Tech

West Memphis boys earn road victory over Eagles

WM School District PARAGOULD — Jordan Mitchell's ankle is A-OK and then some.

The Blue Devil point guard, who was held out of last Friday night's game against Paragould after turning his ankle at Jonesboro a few days before, poured in 21 of his career-high 30 points in the second half to almost single- handedly will West Memphis to a convincing 68-51 win over Greene County Tech here on Tuesday night.

Mitchell wasn't simply an offensive juggernaut.

He filled up the stat sheet with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.

'Mitch was stellar tonight,' said West Memphis head coach Marcus Brown. 'He goes, we go. He goes to the boards and leads us in rebounds and he controls the tempo. I'm proud of him.'

The victory puts the Blue Devils (9-9 overall) solidly in third place in the 5AEast Conference standings at 4-2.

'We had to get this one to stay within striking distance,' said Brown, referring to first place. 'Very good for our morale. We want a shot (at the conference championship) down the stretch. We're not just playing for a (high) seed, we're trying to get better each game.'

That was never more evident than Tuesday night. It was probably the Blue Devils' best game all year, especially on defense.

The Eagles (4-3, 1-3) rely heavily on crisp ball movement on offense and 3point shooting.

Feet moved frenetically on the defensive end for the Blue Devils and the final numbers proved it.

West Memphis forced 16 Tech turnovers and held the Eagles well under their season average of 3-point makes. Tech made only 6 of 18 shots from behind the bonus arc.

'I give us about an 87 or 88 out of a hundred tonight on defense,' said a smiling Brown. 'At times our defense was really, really good tonight. The only thing I took off points for was we were not boxing out the shooter. The shooter got a lot of offensive rebounds for (Tech).'

West Memphis still outrebounded the Eagles 25-18.

Brown was also quick to emphasize his team's freethrow shooting.

Normally a below-average free-throw shooting team, the Blue Devils sizzled by making 15 of 17 for 88 percent.

'Don't forget about that,' Brown said, laughing. 'We made our free throws.'

But the evening was all about Mitchell.

He focused on setting up his teammates in the first half and the result was an 18-8 Blue Devil lead after the first quarter.

And the visitors didn't let up from there.

Only twice in the third quarter did Tech get within seven points of West Memphis and the Eagles made it a 35-28 game at halftime.

But Calvin Butler drained one of his three 3-pointers on the night to start the second half and then it turned into the Mitchell Show.

The 6-foot-2 guard scored 10 of his team's next 12 points on a variety of moves, to give the Blue Devils a 49-34 cushion with 49 seconds to play in the third quarter.

He then opened the fourth quarter with two smooth mid-range pull-ups to make it a 17-point game at 53-36. Mitchell scored nine points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

'We were able to get stops or turnovers and then convert on the other end,' said Brown. 'We made it happen on the defensive end and we were able to get open looks all night on offense.'

The Blue Devils shot 49 percent from the field on 24 of 49.

Kameron Barnes added 10 points for West Memphis while Butler hit 9 and Selah Robins, after a night off last Friday night against Paragould, scored 7. Jalen Moore chipped in 6 points to the winning cause.

The Blue Gang returns to Lehr Arena Friday night to take on Batesville.

Photos by Billy Woods