BLYTHEVILLE -- The West Memphis boys overcame poor foul shooting and a 12-point deficit to edge out Blytheville 50-45.
Winners of their past seven games, the Blue Devils (18-2, 11-1 6A/5A-3) hit only 6 of 20 from the free-throw line, including 4 of 14 in the fourth quarter.
"We make them in practice, but sometimes it just doesn't translate over to the games," said West Memphis Coach Larry Bray, whose team Tuesday hit 16 of 20 in the fourth quarter against Forrest City.
Blytheville started strong against West Memphis' zone defense, hitting all five of its field goals in the first quarter and its first two of the second quarter. The Chickasaws led 13-2 with just 39 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Blue Devils made only 2 of 13 shots in the quarter, but West Memphis hit 8 of 12 from the floor in the second quarter to trim Blytheville's lead to 26-25 at halftime.
The Blue Devils hit only 2 of 6 free throws in the final minute, but junior Zachary Byrd rebounded two of the misses and scored on putbacks.
West Memphis put the game away when the Chickasaws' A.J. Love missed a three-pointer with the score 48-45 Blue Devils. Blue Devils junior Sidney Stinson rebounded the miss and threw a half-court outlet to Kelsey Hubbard, the game's high scorer with 18 points, who hit a layup with 6.5 seconds left.
West Memphis freshman Chris Moore added 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Byrd grabbed 12 rebounds.
Blytheville (11-10, 5-7) got 10 points from Tony Newmy and nine points from Austin Phelan.
GIRLS
WEST MEMPHIS 63, BLYTHEVILLE 47
The West Memphis girls used a late first-half surge that carried over to the first few minutes of the third quarter to defeat Blytheville.
West Memphis (14-8, 8-4 6A/5A-3) led 25-14 with under 30 seconds to play in the first half, but Blytheville was called for an intentional foul and the Lady Blue Devils Paris Perkins hit two free throws to make it 28-14 at halftime.
On the same intentional foul, the Blytheville bench was issued two technical fouls and West Memphis' Taylor Johnson opened the second half by sinking 4 of 4 free throws. She then stole the inbounds pass and scored to make it 34-14 with only 14 seconds gone in the third quarter.
Johnson scored 11 while Keara Williams added 10 for West Memphis.
Blytheville's Laurissa Campbell led all scorers with 14 points.
Sports on 01/28/2017