By By ZACH BROOKS
Sports Writer
The Escambia County Blue Devils varsity boys basketball team started off their week with two tough area games against the Robertsdale Golden Bears on Tuesday night and the Cintronelle Wildcats on Friday night.
The Devils needed these two wins to wins to improve their area record to 3-2 with a very tough area game against the Blount Leopards coming up.
"To win against Robertdale, we have to contain Obie Trotter," Escambia County Head Coach Jerrry Smith said.
Trotter is the Bears leading scorer for the season. He also lead the team in scoring in the recent United Bank Invitational in which the Bears finished tied for third place.
The game was all Robertsdale from the start as the Bears took a five point lead, 21-17, heading into the second quarter and never looked back.
The Bears extended their lead to 15 points in the second quarter by outscoring the Devils 17-6 for the quarter to take a 38-23 lead into half-time.
The Devils shaved the Bears lead by one in the third quarter by outscoring Robertsdale 15-14 for the quarter as the Bears took a 52-38 lead into the final period.
Any thought of a Blue Devil miracle comeback was shot down by a stalemate in points by both teams for the quarter at 17. Due to the stalemate in points, the Devils took the loss 69-55.
"The other team just played better than us tonight," Smith said. "We could not do anything right."
One of the reasons the Devils was an atrocious night shooting from the field. The Blue Devils only shot 30% from the floor and 54% from the free throw line.
"We did not have a very good shooting night from the floor or the foul line", Smith said. "We had our shots but they would not go in."
"Barrett had a poor shooting night", Smith said. "And nobody stepped up to take over the scoring load."
Kenny Clark lead the Devils in points with 12 on the night. Layton Knight and James Wilson followed with eight points apiece for the Devils.
Much to the dismay of the Devils Obie Trotter had a magnificent game for the Bears. He scored a game high 32 points on the night.
"We could not stop Trotter," Coach Smith said. "Everything we tried never seemed to work."
The Blue Devils next game was against the Cintronelle Wildcats on Friday night in Atmore.
With the loss to Robertsdale on Tuesday night, the Devils area record dropped to 1-3. The Devils wanted to use this game to give them some confidence and a 2-3 area record heading into a very important area game against Blount.
"We need to play better defense and shoot a lot better against Cintronelle if we want to win," Coach Smith said.
The game started off good for the Blue Devils as they took a three point lead, 15-12 heading into the second quarter.
The Devils built on their lead in the second quarter by outscoring the Wildcats,19-11, to take a 11-point lead, 34-23, going into half-time.
The Wildcats trimmed the Devils lead by one in the third quarter by outscoring the Devils, 15-14 for the quarter, as the Devils took a 48-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Devils ended any thought of a comeback for the Wildcats by outscoring them 18-15 for the quarter, and truly dominating down the stretch. Due to the Wildcats inability to outscore the Devils in the final period, the Devils nailed down the area win, 66-52.
"We played a whole lot better on defense tonight, " Smith said. "We also shot the ball a lot better, and had a lot less turnovers tonight than we usually have."
Barrett Finney lead the Blue Devils in points with a game-high 20 on the night. Steve Moore followed with 16 points for the Devils. Kenny Clark and Layton Knight also had eight points on the night for the Devils.
The win gave the Devils a 2-3 area record heading into their final area game against the Blount Leopards.
The Devils next game will be on Monday against the Northview Chiefs. The game will be at 5:00 and will be for boys and girls varsity teams.