Escambia County’s Blue Devils played in two exciting overtime games last week, losing 51-45 in overtime at Thomasville on Tuesday but bouncing back to defeat visiting Clarke County 67-64 in double overtime Friday.

The Blue Devils are now 12-12 overall and 2-2 in Class 4A, Area 1 play.
ECHS coach Earlando Courtney said he was proud of the Blue Devils’ effort against Thomasville, which is currently the top team in the area.

“We’ve beaten two teams in our area and we took the top team into overtime in their gym,” he said. “It’s been an up and down season but those were two good games that we can build on.”

ECHS was scheduled to play Northview on Monday, but that game was not completed by presstime. The Blue Devils’ next home game is Friday at 7 p.m. against UMS-Wright.

Escambia County 67,
Clarke County 64 (2 OT)

Jarvis Knight hit a three-pointer at the buzzer of the second overtime Friday night, sparking the Blue Devils to the victory.

Knight also led the team with 16 points. Darius McCarthy scored 10 points and Akeem Gray and Malik McMillan each added eight. ECHS led 19-18 at halftime, but had to battle to send the game into overtime.

“Our defense played great down the stretch to give us a chance,” Courtney said. “We were down about six points with less than a minute to go, but we made just enough plays to get it into overtime.”

Courtney noted that his team missed a free throw near the end of regulation that could have given the Blue Devils a much earlier win.

“I guess you could say it’s our Achilles heel,” he said. “I don’t necessarily mean free-throw shooting, but just being able to make plays down the stretch. We haven’t really done a good job of making those plays to close out games.
“Friday was a great win for us; it was a very gutsy win.”

Thomasville 51,
Escambia County 45 (OT)

Courtney said the Blue Devils missed two free throws that would have given them the win in regulation Tuesday night, on the way to falling in Thomasville.

“It’s tough because I thought that we played well enough to win,” he said. “It wasn’t necessarily about missing the free throws at the end. You can go through an entire game and pick out a lay up you missed, or a few points here or there that could have made the difference.

“We have had several games this year where we got close, but just needed to find a way to finish.”

Desmond Williams led ECHS with 16 points, and McMillan added 10. McCarthy scored nine points and Knight added seven.