By By ROBERT BLANKENSHIP
Advance Managing Editor
After falling well behind in their first contest of the year, the Escambia County Lady Blue Devils came storming back to defeat W.S. Neal 64-43.
The girls' basketball team is coming off three consecutive area championships and regional finals appearances. Despite having a young team this year, head coach Theodore White said they showed a lot of maturity in the first game.
W.S. Neal had 34 turnovers in the game.
The Lady Devils found themselves behind 22-7 at the end of the first period. But, good shooting from the only senior on the squad, Pam Bynum, and Daphne Craft who came in off the bench to shoot well propelled ECHS on a 15-2. By the end of the second period, the W.S. Neal lead had been cut to 24-22.
The Lady Devils went on to outscore the opposition 18-15 in the third and 24-7 in the fourth to claim the victory.
Leading scorers were Bynum with 21 points, Janet Wilson with 13, Craft with 13 and Marquita Jones scored 12 points.
White said there is still a few mistakes that must be corrected and that he felt his squad could improve.
Up next for the Lady Devils is Blount, which is coming into the season with high expectations and is the early favorite to win the area.
White said the interesting thing about the Blount and ECHS matchup will be both teams' tendency to run the full-court press.