CARRIERE — On Friday night the Lady Blue Devils lost their second game of the season, falling 53-46 to Long Beach. They are now 7-2 overall. The boys dropped to 2-7 in their 62-54 loss to Long Beach.

Turnovers and missed free throws crippled the Lady Devils: they turned it over 23 times and missed 23 free throws. PRC shot 13 for 36 from the line—36 percent. Long Beach had 14 turnovers.

“The bottom line when you have a week between games, you come out and have that many turnovers and that many missed assignments, I have to do a better job of getting them ready to play, period,” Head Coach Tony LaBella said. “We relied on some of our returning players to kind of take the game over, and we didn’t really have anybody who was on and we didn’t press well. We played as if we thought we were a little better than what we were, and again, I have to keep them grounded and do a better job.”

Kayla Ryan led the team in scoring with 15 points. Claire Lumpkin added 11 points and five rebounds.

The PRC boys were tied 30-30 at the half against Long Beach, but the wheels came off in the second half where they had nine turnovers and a number of mental mistakes. Throughout the entire game the Blue Devils were dominated on the glass by Long Beach.

Donte Stephens picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter, forcing Head Coach Kelton Thompson to relegate him to the bench until the 5:00 mark in the fourth quarter.

With just under two minutes left in the game, Stephens dunked the ball to bring the Blue Devils within seven points as Long Beach led 59-52. However, Stephens hung on the rim after the dunk and was hit with a technical foul, which was his fifth personal, and subsequently was fouled out of the game.

Because of Stephens’ technical foul, Long Beach was awarded two foul shots and possession of the ball.

The Long Beach player made both free throws and pushed the  score to 61-52 with a minute to play.

Coach Thompson was visibly frustrated by the way his guys played.

“We’re not mature enough to handle the situations that put you in a position to be successful, so until we grow up, until we develop some better habits and the mental side of our game and obviously in every phase of what we’re doing, those things are going to keep plaguing us,” Thompson said.

Stephens had 18 points and six rebounds. A. J. Banks finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.