Under the leadership of new head coach Lorenzo Jones, the Escambia County Lady Blue Devils opened up the 2010-11 season with a victory defeating the Flomaton Lady Hurricanes 46-38 in front of home crowd on Thursday night at Escambia County High School.

The Lady Blue Devils (1-0, 0-0) battled the Lady Hurricanes throughout the game, but a large difference in the second quarter helped ECHS pick up their first win of the season.

Jones said his team really got moving late in the game.

“We started out slow,” he said. “But we picked up the pace in the second half of the game. Overall, the girls did a decent job in their first game and I think we will be all right down the stretch.”

The opening quarter of the game proved to be slow for both teams as the Lady Blue D evils were able to outscore Flomaton 7-5.

In the second quarter, ECHS picked up the slack and tightened down on defense holding the Lady Hurricanes to two points and scoring 12 of their own to take a 19-7 lead into halftime.

After halftime, the Lady Hurricanes came out firing as they cut into the Lady Blue Devils’ lead and putting up 15 points and holding the home team to eight to make the score 27-22 in favor of ECHS.

The fourth quarter saw the most scoring as the Lady Blue Devils outscored Flomaton 19-18 to come away with the 46-38 victory.

Lady Blue Devil Jasmine Ireland led ECHS in scoring with 16 points. Ireland also recorded six steals and four assists.

Diamond Williams followed Ireland with 11 points, four assists, two steals and two rebounds, while Cha’Nae Lyles scored eight points with seven steals, three rebounds and two assists.

Jones said his team needs to work on some things in practice.

“Before we get deep in the season, we need to work on our turnovers and shot selection.”

The Lady Blue Devils next game is Tuesday night at Hillcrest-Evergreen.

Games tipoff at 4 p.m.