By By Chandler Myers
Starting area play with home court advantage is a good thing to have on your side, but it doesn’t always help.
The Escambia County Lady Blue Devils found that out on Tuesday night as they suffered their first area loss of the season 60-47 to the Vigor Lady Wolves.
The Lady Blue Devils (10-5, 0-1) played the No. 6 ranked Lady Wolves (7-8, 1-0) tough for one quarter, but fell back after some costly turnovers.
In the first period, ECHS scored eight points and was only down by two points heading in to the second quarter, which would be as close to the lead as they would come the entire game.
Lady Blue Devils senior guard Latesha Lee led all ECHS scorers with 15 points. Lee also posted five rebounds, two steals and two assists in the loss.
ECHS head coach Ray Greer said his team’s opponent was just able to run the court well and exploit weaknesses.
In the second quarter, the Lady Wolves pulled even further ahead scoring 19 points in the eight minutes of play and only allowing the home team to score 10. At halftime, Vigor went into the locker room with a commanding 29-18 lead.
Lady Devils senior forward Courtney English scored 11 points in the game. English shot 50 percent from the free throw line, while pulling down 13 boards, dishing out four assists, stealing three passes and blocking three shots.
Senior center Brittney Martin added six points for her team from the post-position. She also pulled down six rebounds and blocked two shots.
Greer said by halftime the Lady Blue Devils were getting outplayed and could not figure out how to stop the Lady Wolves.
After halftime, it was a different quarter with the same results as the Lady Blue Devils could not stop Vigor from scoring at will.
ECHS gave up 18 points in the third period, while only scoring 10 and allowing Vigor to take a 47-28 lead into the fourth and final period.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Blue Devils put together a small comeback and played their best quarter of the game.
ECHS scored 19 points and pulled closer to Vigor by only allowing the visitors to score 13 points.
Junior forward Canausha Crenshaw and sophomore guard Cha’Nai Lyles scored two points each. Crenshaw also posted four rebounds and one steal in the loss, while Lyles recorded one rebound.
Senior guard Jodeci Craft scored five points for the Lady Blue Devils, while posting three rebounds.
Greer said turnovers were the problem that the Lady Blue Devils faced the entire game.
Sophomore guard Tiffany Madison and senior guard Tiarra Ankum netted three points apiece.
Greer said the loss showed him where his team needs to work on in practice.
The Lady Blue Devils next game is against Northview at ECHS on Monday. Tip off is at 6 p.m.