By By ZACH BROOKS
Sports Writer
The Escambia County High School Blue Devils finished off their very busy week with a 56-50 loss to Clarke County High School Saturday night in Atmore.
The Devils came into the game trying to stop a two-losing streak. They Devils lost to Northview High School Monday night and too Crestview High School Friday night. The Blue Devils were trying to put an end to the losing streak with a win against Clarke County Saturday night.
The Devils also had some extra motivation in the game against Clarke County. Clarke County had plastered the Devils 73-56 in their last meeting on December 1rst and the Blue Devils really wanted some redemption Saturday night when they played them at home.
A win was not to be for the Devils, as Clarke County took a one point first quarter lead, 12-11, and never relinquished it for the entire game.
The Devils kept it close again in the second quarter, as Clarke County only outscored the Devils 12-11 for the quarter on their way to a one-point lead, 24-23, heading into half-time.
Clarke County started pulling away in the third quarter as they outscored the Blue Devils , 15-7, for the quarter on their way to a nine-point lead, 39-30, heading into the final period.
The Blue Devils started coming back in the final period but came up short at the end, as Clarke County made 2/3 free-throws down the stretch, to hold the Devils and give Clarke County the 56-50 win.
"The really killed us on the rebounds, " Escambia County High School Senior forward Damien Robinson said. " We did not block out, or follow through on our shots, and you have to do that to be a good rebounding team."
"We also did not make enough shots," Robinson said. "We shot the ball enough, but we could not get the shots to go down."
Layton Knight lead the Blue Devils in points with 12 points on the night. Layton scored all his points on three point shots , in which he was 3/5 on the night.
Kenny Clarke followed for the Blue Devils with 11 points on the night. Kenny has been really coming along lately for the Devils. He has been playing great defense and rebounding really well, along with his scoring.
Clarke County held leading scorer Barrett Finney to six points on the night. His six points were his second lowest scoring output on the season for the Devils.
Neither team really shot particularly well from the free-throw line. The Blue Devils shot 46% from the free-throw line on 5/11 shooting, while Clarke County shot 37% percent on 4/11 free throws.
The leading scorers for Clarke County were Gary Dickinson and Jerez Love. Dickinson had 17 points on the night while Love had 16 points. Rios Frazier also had eight points on the night for Clarke County.
The Blue Devils next game will be against the Baldwin County Tigers on Tuesday night in Baldwin County. Gametime will be at 4:30 and it will be for boys and girls varsity only.