Blue Devils drop overtime thriler in Classic

West Memphis falls to Fort Smith Northside on he road By Billy Woods WM School District CONWAY — For the second year in a row the West Memphis Blue Devils were taken to overtime in the John Stanton Classic, and both times the Devils came out on the losing end.

The defending Class 6A state champs, Fort Smith Northside, turned back West Memphis here on Friday night, 54-52 in overtime.

A year ago, it was host Conway which took a triple-overtime 100-95 victory over the Blue Devils. It was the most points in West Memphis school history in a loss.

On Friday night, turnovers were the culprits for the Blue Devils (7-3).

After senior reserve Deon Williams, who is making a bid to start, sank a deep three-pointer at the buzzer in regulation to send the game into overtime, the Blue Devils turned it over on their first four possessions in the extra period.

“Execution,” Blue Devil head coach Marcus Brown said when asked what his team could take away from the defeat. “We gotta execute better. We had what we were supposed to run, but we had some mistakes. We can’t go off script.”

In one of the best oneon- one matchups the state will see this season, Blue Devil senior big man Chris Moore, giving up two inches in height, was face-up against Northside’s 6-foot-9 Jaylin Williams, a likely Arkansas signee. Williams got the better of Moore, scoring a gamehigh 19 points. Moore hit 13, but only 4 of them came in the second half.

The Blue Devils jumped out to an early six-point lead, but Northside (5-3) came back to take a 27- 20 lead at halftime. And the Grizzlies increased their lead to 30-20 with an opening three-pointer from Williiams in the third quarter.

But West Memphis senior Kylan Sykes swished a three-ball at the end of the third quarter to knot the score at 37-37 heading into the fourth quarter.

The game likely turned in regulation when the Blue Devil bench was assessed a technical with 1:05 to play with Northside leading 45-44.

Jacob Joe, brother of Razorback star Isaiah Joe, made both free throws.

But with 8.9 seconds to play, the Blue Devils still had a chance. After a timeout to draw up a play, West Memphis players looked confused as soon as the ball was inbounded.

Williams, however, bailed his teammates out by double-clutching in mid-air and canning a three to send the game into overtime.

Asked if his club executed what he drew up during the timeout, Brown said, “Not even close.

“And that’s what I’m saying about listening and doing what we as coaches are telling them.”

The confusion bled over into the extra stanza.

The Blue Devils threw four passes out of bounds and although Northside turned those miscues into five points, West Memphis was fortunate it didn’t find itself down more than 52-47.

“The plays we were running (in overtime) were wide open,” Brown said.

“But we refused to do what we were supposed to do.”

Senior guard Immanuel Hoard led the West Memphis scoring with 16 points while junior point guard Jordan Mitchell hit 14. Sykes ended with 6.