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Blue Devils double up with pair of road wins

Blue Devils double up with pair of road wins

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West Memphis beats Little Rock Central, Memphis Central backto- back

WM School District Well before the season began, Blue Devil head coach Marcus Brown wanted to test his team’s resolve by scheduling road games on back-toback nights.

Playing their second game in the same 24hour span, the West Memphis boys passed the grueling test by scoring a 67-47 victory Tuesday night at Memphis Central.

“We’re not going to shy away from any scheduling difficulties,” said Brown. “The intent was to see how we would respond to playing backto- back nights, which is probably what we’ll have to do come state tournament time.”

Actually, this test was much tougher than anything the state tournament could throw at the Blue Devils. They began the road swing with Monday night’s game at Little Rock Central, whose two-hour drive didn’t get the team back in town until near midnight.

Less than 24 hours later they made the short bus trip across the river to play Memphis Central.

All state tournament games will be played at one site.

“This just makes us get our minds right,” Brown added. “I just told them (Monday night) to go home and get some rest.

Of course, they had to get up early and get to school today, but they’re 16- and 17-yard-olds.

Young legs.”

The Blue Devils (5-2) never trailed and in the fourth quarter, when their legs could have wilted, they pulled away with a furious finish.

Memphis Central (82) came into the game averaging 81.3 points per game, including a 106-point outing against Overton. But the underclassmen- heavy Warriors were overwhelmed with the steady hand of the Blue Devil veterans on defense.

The Warriors never led, but tied the game 30-30 with 54 seconds left before halftime. A layup by Immanuel Hoard, who led Blue Devil scorers with 17 points, gave the visitors a 32-30 edge at intermission.

The second half belonged to West Memphis, largely due to the break-out game of first-year reserve Jaylon Lewis, who scored 9 of his 14 points in the second half.

“He’s just gotta get comfortable with what we do,” Brown said of Lewis, a transfer from Memphis Mitchell.

“Tonight his pull-up jumper was very good.

Overall, he was one of the guys who helped our ball movement tonight, which was the way I like to see it.”

The Blue Devils began the fourth quarter with a 48-37 lead, but Lewis hit two straight mid-range shots to burst it wide open. The Blue Devils outscored Central 19-7 in the fourth quarter.

Chris Moore added 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for West Memphis while Xavier Warren, who has started the last two games, pumped in 6 and Daveon Doolittle came off the bench to pour in 4 points.

The Blue Devils will travel to Springfield, Mo. on Friday to play Putnam West.

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