West Memphis shakes off slow start to hammer Claiborne

Southern Sports & Travel

It wasn’t the start that West Memphis head coach Jeff Dalton wanted in the Black Knight’s second round encounter with unranked Claiborne but after shaking off a sub par first quarter the top ranked team in Class A rolled to a 69-46 win to advance to tonight’s semi-finals of the Class A State Tournament being held at Rebul Academy in Learned, Mississippi.

Grant Campbell scored a game high 22 points and Taylor Turnage chipped in with 14 as the Black Knights improved to 30-2 on the season. The win sets up a battle between the top two teams in Class A as West Memphis will take on second ranked Cenla tonight at 7:15.

Claiborne looked ready to pull an upset in yesterday’s matchup with West Memphis.

The Rebels came out on fire as Trey Washington wasted little time in draining an 18 foot jumper thirty seconds into the game.

West Memphis answered as Grant Campbell scored on a transition basket to tie the game at 2-2 in the early going.

Claiborne’s David Lewis responded with a long 3-pointer from the wing at the 6:02 mark as the Rebels regained the lead at 5-2 and Claiborne would maintain a lead until the 2:42 mark when West Memphis knotted the game at 12-12 on a Zane DeVazier 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Claiborne responded with a 7-2 run to take their biggest lead of the quarter at 19-14 with 47 seconds left but West Memphis was about to get cranked up.

Jack Carver scored on an inbounds play and Grant Campbell’s offensive rebound and put back would pull the Black Knights to within a point at 19-18 to close out the opening quarter of play.

West Memphis would tie the game at 19-19 as Grant Campbell converted on one of two free throws to open the quarter and the Black Knights grabbed their first lead of the game at 21-19 on Zane DeVazier’s floater in the lane at the 6:36 mark.

The Black Knight run continued as Taylor Turnage hit a 10 jumper and Grant Campbell extended the West Memphis lead to 25-19 with a floater off the glass with 4:54 remaining in the half.

Claiborne fired back as David Lewis drained a 3-pointer from the wing and a Ty Hays offensive rebound and put back brought the Rebels to within a point at 25-24.

West Memphis increased their lead back to eight points at 34-26 with 1:01 remaining on a Cortez Whitaker offensive rebound and score but Claiborne wasn’t going away as David Lewis scored in the paint with 4 seconds left to keep the Rebels close at 34-28 as the half ended.

That would be as close as Claiborne would get to the top ranked Black Knights.

David Lewis of West Memphis turned a Claiborne turnover into a 3-pointer to open the third quarter and that was quickly followed by a transition basket from Taylor Turnage to push the lead to 39-28 with less than two minutes gone in the quarter.

After Turnage hit on one of two free throws Cortez Whitaker scored off an offensive rebound to give West Memphis their biggest lead at 42-28 with 6:00 left in the quarter.

Claiborne finally got a score at the 5:44 mark on a Haider Laghari bucket but West Memphis was on a roll.

Grant Campbell drilled a 3-pointer and Campbell took a Claiborne turnover and served up an assist to Cortez Whitaker to increase the West Memphis lead to 47-30.

Whitaker scored again at the 3:45 mark and Ricky Patterson’s floater in the paint capped a 17-2 run to give the Black Knights a 51-30 edge with less than three minutes left in the quarter.

West Memphis would wrap up the third quarter on a Taylor Turnage score off an inbounds play with 25 seconds left to head into the final eight minutes of play holding a comfortable 54-35 advantage.

The Black Knights would take their biggest lead of the night at 67-40 on a Jonathon Gossett 18 foot jumper with 2:32 left in regulation and would earn a 69-46 win to advance to tonight’s semi-finals.

Grant Campbell led West Memphis with 22 points, Taylor Turnage added 14, Cortez Whitaker 10, Zane DeVazier 7, Ricky Patterson and David Lewis 5, Jack Carver 4 and Jonathon Gossett 2.

Claiborne was led by David Lewis with 13 points, Haider Laghari chipped in with 8, Jace Eulate 7, Ty Hays 6, Tyler Pitson and Trey Washington 4 each and Nick Baraka 2.

Post Game with West Memphis Head Coach Jeff Dalton