The Escambia County High School Blue Devils’ basketball team improved to 6-4 for the season, after dropping two of three games at a tournament in Robertsdale this week.

The Class 4A Blue Devils lost 51-50 to Class 6A McGill-Toolen on Monday, lost 66-44 to Class 6A Daphne High School on Tuesday and beat Class 4A Clarke County 80-63 on Wednesday morning.

Coach Earlando Courtney said the Blue Devils had a chance to beat McGill, the eventual tournament champion, at the end of the “back-and-forth” game.

“We played great,” he said. “We did everything we were supposed to do.”

ECHS missed an opportunity to take the lead with a lay up and couldn’t get another shot off before time ran out, Courtney said.

Courtney called the Blue Devils’ 22-point loss to the Trojans on Tuesday evening a “mental letdown.” He said scorers didn’t keep track of the turnovers in the game, but ECHS had a “tremendous amount” of them.

“If we’d have played Daphne like we played McGill, we’d have won by 20 points,” Courtney said. “It was like two different teams.”

The Blue Devils’ all-tournament selection was sharpshooter Josh Hill. Hill hit a barrage of 3-point shots during the week. He hit four 3-pointers against McGill for 12 points, three 3-pointers against Daphne for 11 points and six 3-pointers against Clarke County for 18 points.

Jarvis Knight hit five 3-pointers against Clarke County and four 3-
pointers against Daphne.

Desmond Williams poured in 23 points against McGill, 10 points against Daphne and 24 points against Clarke County.