It was an up and down weekend for the Escambia County High School basketball team as the Blue Devils picked up their first area win Friday night before notching a loss Saturday.

The Devils improved to 8-5 on the season and 1-0 in the area Friday with a 67-57 win over the Thomasville Tigers on the road, but fell short Saturday, losing 88-81 to the Hillcrest-Evergreen Jaguars.

ECHS head coach Earlando Courtney said his team simply needs to return to the basics in order to get back on track after Saturday’s loss ended the Devils’ five-game winning streak.

“We reverted back to some of our old bad habits late in the game,” Courtney said. “We controlled the entire game, but in the third quarter we had a total collapse. We didn’t execute and they were able to pull it out at home.”

After knocking off Thomasville on Friday, the Devils were able to force the Jaguars into overtime, but ultimately were unable to finish the job.

“We started fouling towards the end and we didn’t make shots in overtime,” Courtney said. “We didn’t drive to the basket. We fell in love with the three and it did us in.”

Despite Saturday’s setback, Courtney said he is optimistic about his team’s chance to go 3-0 in their area with two big games looming in the next week.

“Tuesday night’s game is an area game and Friday is an area game,” Courtney said. “Clarke County and UMS-Wright are both away, but it’ll be a good test for us. If we can get out with a couple of wins, we’ll be in the driver seat and the rest of the area games are at home.”

The Devils will carry an 8-6,1-0 record into Tuesday’s match up with Clarke County, and will face UMS-Wright on Friday.

For the complete story on the Blue Devils weekend games, see the Wednesday, Jan. 9 edition of The Atmore Advance.