Lady Pats come back to beat Lady Devils

Lady Pats come back to beat Lady Devils

Marion girls rally in victory over West Memphis at Lehr Arena By Billy Woods

WM School District Last Friday night’s game between the West Memphis girls vs Marion went nearly the same way last year’s meetings went.

The Lady Devils bolted to an early lead, only to fade in the end and see Marion come out on top.

So it was this time as well.

Marion rallied from an early deficit to defeat the Lady Devils 47-43 at Lehr Arena.

Interim head coach Sonja Tate’s troops broke out to leads of 5-0 in the first quarter and 16-11 by the early moments of the second quarter.

The Lady Devils even led at halftime 22-18 before Marion broke a 3434 tie at the end of three quarters to own the final eight minutes.

“This team is going to have to learn to continue to fight…all four quarters,” said Tate. “You can’t have mental breakdowns and then not be able to repair it.”

The West Memphis girls have not had many smooth moments this season. In fact, it’s been more about tragedy than triumph.

The death of teammate Jatava Murray in November shook the program.

Tate’s father also recently died.

And before the season even began head coach Shelia Burns was struck with a brain aneurysm.

On Friday night. Burns made her first return to West Memphis since being struck down. She was welcomed by dozens of Lady Devil fans, coaches, friends and the current Lady Devil roster.

Burns has regained most of her speech, although she still has a ways to go to regain use of her right hand. Regardless, she has made remarkable progress and her presence at the Marion game was very encouraging to a lot of folks.

The Lady Devils led twice in the fourth quarter, at 39-36 after a layup by Tierra Bradley, who came off the bench to score 8 points. Bradley also stuck back a missed shot with 2:35 to play to give her team its final lead at 41-40.

But Marion’s Joi Montgomery, who served as a Lady Devil spoiler last season, did it again to West Memphis. She hit a tum-around jumper from mid-range at the 2:16 mark to give the visitors the lead for good.

The final dagger came in the form of two free throws by Tashlee Milow with 10.5 seconds to play to clinch the win for Marion.

“The final two minutes were crucial against us,” said Tate. “We just gotta grow up and play through those things.”

Despite the setback, the Lady Devils outrebounded Marion 33-26, but the category that hurt them most was in turnovers, where West Memphis turned it over 18 times to Marion’s 12.

The biggest discrepancy in the game, however, was at the free-throw line.

Marion had 27 freethrow attempts to West Memphis’ 3.

“I’m not happy about that, but it is what it is and that’s just something else you’ve got to play through,” Tate added. “It’s not something I want to emphasize.”

West Memphis sank 20 of 47 shots from the field while Marion converted 20 of 46.

The Lady Devils will return to action Tuesday night at Searcy before coming home this Friday night to face Nettleton in a game that will begin at 4 p.m. as part of a very special night at Lehr Arena.

ESPN will televise the Memphis East-Rancho Christian (CA) boys game that will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets to both West Memphis games and the Memphis East game are on sale at the West Memphis School District’s administrative office and at the Academies of West Memphis main office until the day of the game.

Tickets are $5 apiece.

Lady Devils’ Ta’Nya Burnett towers for a rebound against Marion.

Photos by Billy Woods

Lady Devil point guard Aryah Hazley led her team with 10 points.