Patriots defense proves too much for Blue Devils

Patriots defense proves too much for Blue Devils

Marion scores rare road win against West Memphis

By Billy Woods

WM School District Marion’s boys showed why on Friday night they are a team to be reckoned with come state tournament time. Behind the inside defensive dominance of 6-9 senior Timothy Ceasar and the outside prowess of junior guard Detric Reeves, the Patriots broke a seven-game losing streak to West Memphis as they came into Lehr Arena and posted a 64-52 victory over the previously high-flying Blue Devils.

Ceasar, whose long arms and athleticism serve him best on the defensive end, got some help inside as the Pats double-teamed West Memphis star Chris Moore, who came into the game averaging 22.7 points and 14 rebounds in his last seven games.

On Friday night, Moore was held to a season-low 6 points.

“Our execution tonight was…I don’t know what we were doing,” West Memphis head coach Marcus Brown explained. “I thought we had two good practices coming in. We played hard, but we didn’t play smart.”

It was all Marion for the entire 32 minutes, except for a brief stretch in the second quarter when the Blue Devils (12-3 overall, 0-1 in the 5A-East Conference) rallied from a 23-8 deficit.

After a 16-0 run by Marion, the Blue Devils summoned up enough energy to nearly match it with a 15-0 spurt of their own to cut the Patriots’ lead to 25-24 with 1:20 left before halftime.

Marion, however, held on for a 27-24 lead at intermission.

“They got us playing at their pace,” Brown said.

“What I mean by that is they wanted it sloppy and the score to be in the 50s.”

The Blue Devils could never recover after that.

With Moore bottled up inside and the Patriots daring the Blue Devils to make the shots from outside, it became a frustrating slog the rest of the way for the hosts.

Senior Corliss Brewer, who has been a pretty consistent threat from threepoint range, suffered an off night and finished scoreless. The Blue Devils did get some production from deep, however, in the form of junior reserve Immanuel Hoard, who led all scorers on the night with 22 points.

But the scoreless first half from Moore and the rest of the Blue Devil machine out of synch, kept the Patriots on the prowl.

Reeves, who has garnered Division 1 interests from colleges, continued his mastery of the West Memphis defense. Last season, Reeves, in three losses to the Blue Devils, scored 29,20 and 15 points against West Memphis. This time he led his team with 19 points while Ceasar tallied 14.

“Reeves and Ceasar are two good players,” said Brown. “And they were sinking really hard on Chris all night on defense.

And our guys that shoot, didn’t make any shots tonight. But you can miss shots. We didn’t play any defense, however.”

Marion crushed West Memphis on the boards, ourebounding the hosts 24-11. West Memphis could manage only 19 for 44 shooting from the field while Marion sank 25 of 42.

The Blue Devils also got 14 points from senior point guard Cavin Paige while Jamal Macklin added 6.

The Blue Devils hit the road Tuesday night at Searcy before returning home this Friday night to play Nettleton in a game that will start at approximately 5:30 p.m.

ESPN will televise the Memphis East-Rancho Christian (CA) Academy game from Lehr Arena starting at 8 p.m. Tickets for the game will be on sale this week until the day of the game. They will be available at the West Memphis School District’s administrative office on South Avalon as well as the Academies of West Memphis main office.

Tickets are $5 apiece.

West Memphis point guard Cavin Paige (30) is met inside by Marion’s Timothy Ceasar.

Blue Devil senior Jamal Macklin (4) challenged inside by Marion Keyshawn Woods

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