By By Matthew Nascone
The Escambia County Lady Blue Devils hosted the Lady Hurricanes from Alma Bryant Monday evening and for most of the game Bryant led, but in the middle of the third quarter the Lady Devils came alive.
"I was excited with how we played in that third quarter and part of the fourth quarter," ECHS head coach Ray Greer said. "We looked good out there."
At halftime the Lady Devils trailed 31-17, but a 19-5 advantage in the third quarter tied the game at 36-36, but the Lady Devils fell 50-47 after a late rally by Bryant.
"We had some critical errors in the fourth quarter," Greer said. "And we also missed too many free throws the entire game."
ECHS was 9-for-21 for the charity stripe.
Greer said he was proud of the improvement of his players, especially Megan Hartley, who hit two clutch three-pointers during the Lady Devil comeback in the third quarter.
"I was kind of upset with the foolish errors she was making in the game against Thomasville, but she stepped up and had a great game tonight," Greer said. "We also had a bunch of other people step up and play well."
One of those players was the Lady Devils' leading scorer, junior Courtney English. English dropped 21 points on the Lady Hurricanes and grabbed 11 rebounds. Greer said English has really come alive in the past couple games, averaging a double-double through the past week or so.
Hartley added 12 points, sophomore Jodeci Craft had 7 points, senior T.T. Jennings added 5 points with nine rebounds and senior Latesha Lee contributed 2 points.
Thomasville 65 Lady Devils 42
The Lady Devils lost their opening area game to Thomasville Jan. 4 65-42 at the hands of the Lady Tigers.
Greer said the turning point in the game was a four-point second quarter for ECHS. He said it is hard to win when you score four points in one quarter. The Lady Tigers also scored 20 points in the final quarter when Greer had started to substitute players into the game.
English again led the scoring for ECHS with 17 points. She added 15 rebounds and three steals. Lee had 7 points and sophomore Canausha Crenshaw contributed 6 points.
The Lady Devils faced Jackson High School Tuesday night and the results will be in an upcoming Advance. The next game for the team is an area game Friday in Monroeville against Monroe County High School. Tip off is set for 5 p.m.
Greenville Tournament
The Lady Devils participated in the Greenville Holiday Classic and went 1-2. They took down Georgiana in the first game 40-31, but lost the next two games to Greenville and Smiths Station 46-41 and 54-35, respectively.