By By ROBERT BLANKENSHIP
Advance Managing Editor
The Escambia County High School Blue Devils split two contests this weekend against Citronelle and Baldwin County.
The Blue Devils added a win to their record Friday night by slipping past Citronelle, 48-43.
The win was ECHS' sixth victory of the season.
The game began extremely tight, but the Blue Devils held a slim margin at the end of the first period, 9-7. That lead was stretched slightly in the second period as the score at the half stood at 21-16.
Citronelle outscored the Blue Devils in the third period, 12-11 and both teams scored 15 in the final period for a final score of 48-43.
Leading the way to victory offensively for the Blue Devils was Damien Robinson who scored 14 points. Anthony McCants and Barrett Finney each scored eight points.
Steven Moore led the team with nine rebounds.
Head coach Bob Zarahn said his team should have played better against Citronelle.
On Saturday, Baldwin County gave the Devils their second loss of the season, 54-37.
The two teams exchanged the lead several times in the initial period, but Baldwin County held a 12-11 lead going into the second. The Devils fell further behind during the second period as they were outscored 14-8 to drop to a 26-19 deficit by the half.
The third period hurt the Devils as Baldwin County increased their lead to 42-25 by outscoring ECHS 16-6. ECHS held even with Baldwin County during the final period, but was unable to make up any ground.
Zarahn said poor shooting was the difference in the game.
Finney led the ECHS scorers with eight points and Sharrell Johnson finished with six.
Johnson also led the team in rebounds with nine.
The weekend contests put ECHS' record at 6-2 overall and they maintain a 3-0 record in area play.
The Blue Devils will play W.S. Neal at home Friday night. The game had been postponed from earlier in the season due to Neal's extended football season.