Nate Drinkard rises above Sumiton Christian’s Demont’e Hobbs to shoot a jumper Friday night. Brent Maze

The Falkville Blue Devils had no answer for Sumiton Christian’s rebounding, as the Eagles defeated Falkville 63-50 in a Class 1A Northwest Sub-regional game Friday night.

With Falkville leading 23-18 in the second quarter, Sumiton Christian scored the last eight points of the second quarter and the first four of the third quarter to take a seven-point lead.

The Blue Devils pushed back and cut the lead to 34-31, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Canaan Smith in the third quarter.

However, Sumiton had an answer each time Falkville would draw close again.

The Eagles would push the lead to nine with a 6-0 run, including baskets from Joseph Davis, Micah DeFoor and Demont’e Hobbs.

Falkville made one last push, thanks to a 7-0 run of its own. It was capped by Travis Cole, who made the basket on a hard foul.

Luke Randolph came on the floor for the injured Cole and made the free throw to cut Sumiton’s lead to 54-50.

However, the Blue Devils failed to score anything down the stretch, as the Eagles make free throws to seal the win.

After both teams started sluggishly, Sumiton Christian went on a 10-4 run spanning the first and second quarters to take a 14-10 lead.

Falkville answered with an 11-1 run of its own, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Nate Drinkard.

But the Eagles made the key 12-0 run to take a lead it would never relinquish.

Aaron Estes led the Blue Devils in his final game with 11 points on five of six shooting with four blocked shots. Smith finished with nine points on a trio of 3-pointers with 11 rebounds.

Nate Drinkard and Trevor Blackwood added eight points apiece followed by Cole and Andy Dove with six each and Caleb Anders and Randolph with one each.