THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
West Memphis High School Athletics

Two seasons down, one to go for the West Memphis Blue Devils. With their eyes clearly on claiming a state championship, the WM can kiss the non-conference and the conference seasons goodbye and now focus on the big prize. Playing with all types of rotation combos due to Senior Night festivities, the Blue Devils outlasted Mountain Home 46-39 on Friday night at Lehr Arena. For the 5A-East Conference champion Blue Devils, it is now on to the state tournament, where they will play on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against Beebe. When the final seconds ticked off, head coach Marcus Brown let his Blue Devils soak in the moment for their final game this season at home as the players mingled with friends and family on the court and took selfies with teammates. "The next couple of days we'll be tuning some things up," said Brown, whose team improves to 23-4 overall and ends the season with a 13-1 conference record. "I knew tonight was going to be a tough game. It was our Senior Night, and reality starts setting in for some of these guys because it's their last game to step out on this court." Ranked No. 3 overall in the state in the Arkansas Sports Media and No. 1 in Class 5A, the Blue Devils will be one of the favorites in next week's tournament. They will no doubt play with whatever combos on the court that got them to this point. However, Friday night was all about giving some seniors who have played sparingly this season some high-leverage minutes on the court. The opportunity was seized by senior Tremaine Sims, who started and produced the first two baskets of the game for the Blue Devils, both of which came off offensive rebounds. "Tremaine is a kid you want on your team," said Brown. "He doesn't complain and works hard every day by giving us the intangibles. I was happy for him tonight. In fact, I'm happy for all my seniors. They worked hard as a group all year and provided the right leadership." Although Mountain Home (15-12, 6-8) didn't qualify for the state tournament, the Bombers probably would have been a playoff team in one of the other three Class 5A conferences. They possess one of the better players in the league in forward Mat Jones, who led all scorers with 24 points. He was the single reason the Bombers refused to go away quietly even though their season's fate had already been decided. The Blue Devils led 24-15 at halftime and then started the third quarter on a 6-0 run to push the score to 30-19. But Jones hit a short bank shot to open the fourth quarter to bring the visitors within 37-34. Also playing his final game at home, Blue Devil senior Kyalan Sykes sank a three-pointer with 2:57 to play and then fellow senior Akyrahn Hazley split a pair of free throws to give the hosts a 45-36 lead. West Memphis played its second straight game with less than 10 turnovers by committing only 7 against Mountain Home. And the Blue Devils' 28-15 margin in rebounds gave them 25 games out of their 27 this season outrebounding the opposition. Senior forward Chris Moore wrapped up his four-year career by scoring 17 points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds. Four West Memphians scored 5 points, including Sykes, Jordan Mitchell, Deon Williams and Immanuel Hoard. Jaylon Lewis and Sims each had 4.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
West Memphis High School Athletics

BLUE DEVIL TIP MOUNTAIN HOME, READY FOR STATE TOURNAMENT

BILLY WOODS

WM School District | 2/29/2020

PHOTO CREDIT: West Memphis High School Athletics