FAIRHOPE — Escambia County fought its way back several times and pulled away late to beat Fairhope 76-64 on its senior night Tuesday.

“The boys bounced back,” ECHS coach Erin Straughn said. “I was kind of worried coming into this game a whole lot based off of what we did on Saturday. We were a completely different team.”

Straughn was eluding to a 64-51 loss to Pine Forest, Fla. on Saturday on the road.

Last night, the Blue Devils kept close with the Pirates during the first half despite falling behind from the start.

ECHS bounced back in a big way in the second half, outscoring FHS 21-17 in the third period, and 22-18 in the fourth.

During the third period, Fairhope celebrated a milestone achieved by senior guard Tevin Brown. Brown needed 21 points in the game to reach the 2,000-point plateau.

He reached it with around 6:50 left in the third period on a drop-back 3-pointer to give the Pirates a 44-36 lead.

Brown called time out to celebrate the moment.

Once play resumed, the Blue Devils calmed down a little bit, and went back to what makes them lethal — shooting.

Triston Knott drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 48-47, and Malik Brown got a pair of free throws to give the Blue Devils a 51-48 advantage.

Fairhope’s Brown answered a short time later with a drive in the paint for a 52-51 lead.

Escambia County’s Nick Davison put an exclamation point on a 3-pointer with 1:20 to go for the lead.

Brown then converted on an alley-oop and then attacked the paint off of an ECHS miss for the small advantage going into the fourth.

The Blue Devils started the fourth on fire with back-to-back treys from Davison, from which Brown answered with a dunk and a drive to give Fairhope another lead.

Lue Williams drained a pair, Davison then found Devon Robinson who squeeked in an and one to start to pull away.

M. Brown converted another and one, and then found Robinson again for an easy bucket to take a 71-62 lead.

To close out the game, Davison made four free throws off of two technical fouls by Fairhope to give the Blue Devils (15-7) a 75-64 lead.

Williams led ECHS with 26 points. Robinson had 19, and Davison had 14.

Brown led FHS with 39 points.

ECHS will host T.R. Miller for senior night on Thursday before playing in the Class 4A, Area 2 tournament starting Feb. 9.

For complete coverage, see Wednesday’s edition of The Atmore Advance.