Soldier’s Memorial Middle School held its home basketball opener Oct. 26, but more importantly it was a Pink Out event held for Stephanie Bailey.

Basketball took a back seat on this night as the fans, players and coaches all put on their pink to support the cause and rally around Bailey, who is battling cancer.

Still, there were a couple games to be played and the first of the two was the varsity girls game. Hancock County was the opponent and the Lady Blue Devils were tied with the Lady Indians at halftime, 6-6. The Lady Indians steadily rolled out in front of the home team and took a 16-11 win. Jordan Fultz led the Lady Devils with three points and four others each scored a basket including Hannah Fugate, Makenzie Walker, Madison Ray and Carlye England. Lexi Lindon led the visitors with eight.

The next game was the boys contest and SMMS led at the half 23-19. During the halftime of this game the SMMS cheer team performed an awesome routine that featured a giant pink ribbon made out of poms and at the end had the crowd teary-eyed including Bailey, who was sitting in the stands watching the games and performance.

When the basketball action continued the Devils kept ahead of Hancock and finished the third period leading by one point at 31-30. From that moment on the Indians took control of the game and never looked back winning 47-40. Leading the Indians in the win was H. Hatfield with 14 and J. Ferguson with 12.

The Blue Devils were led by Landen Wilson with 13, Challen Massengill and Tommy Hicks dropped in seven each, Logan Daniels had six, Seth Morelock had five and Zack Bailey dropped in two points.

The Blue Devils didn’t get the results they wanted on the court but they surely did touch the heart of the Bailey family and showed them a huge amount of loving support.