By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WEST MEMPHIS -- Forrest City's Seccar Cole and Brittney White are headed to the high school state tennis tournament.
Cole and White defeated West Memphis in doubles competition Wednesday at the AAAAA-East conference tournament at West Memphis.
The duo lost to Cabot's Chandler Harris and Ryan Young in the consolation match.
Jonesboro claimed both the boys' and girls' conference tournament singles and doubles championships, qualifying all of their players for the upcoming state tournament.
In singles matches, Forrest City's Chris Lamb lost to Jonesboro's Chris Jones 6-0, 6-0 while Clayton Clay fell to Jonesboro's Jeff Carpenter 6-0, 6-1.
Jones went on to win the boys' singles title while Libby Woodruff defeated Jessica Bridges for the girls' singles title.
The state tournament will l be played April 26-27, at Little Rock's Rebsamen Park Courts.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
It's official.
Palestine-Wheatley's Erica Smith is the best girl's high school basketball player in Arkansas.
Smith, who has received just about every honor given in high school basketball, was named Ms. Basketball today by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Smith, a 5-11 senior forward, averaged better than 30 points a game for the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots this past season and was the major force in leading Palestine-Wheatley to the Class AA state title.
She has been playing basketball at Palestine-Wheatley since seventh grade. Winning the state title this year, after two consecutive state runner-up trophies, capped Smith's brilliant high school basketball career.
Smith's next stop will be the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star basketball game, set for Thursday, July 26, at the Farris Center on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas at Conway.
P-W's Beverly Bass, who has been in the coaching profession for 25 years and who has been Smith's coach for the past six years, will coach the East All-Stars.
"There will never be another Erica Smith," Bass said shortly after winning the state title in march. "She is one in a million. There are so many things she can do that a coach just can't teach. She has such a love for the game. I've seen very few girls who love to play the game the way Erica does."
Smith was one of seven seniors on the Lady Patriots' roster this past year. Four were starters along with Bass' daughter, Nikki, a junior guard.
The four senior P-W starters were Smith, Melanie Baker, Sheryl Moore and Carlene Gardner. The remaining P-W seniors were Markita Tomlin, Kristen Wilburn and Tammy Griffin.
Beyond the All-Star game, Smith will be playing her college basketball for Leon Barmore and his Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters. She had her choice of schools before narrowing her final two choices to Tech and Arkansas.
After her visit to Ruston, it didn't take Smith long to make her final decision.
"I want to win a national championship," Smith said recently. "I felt like Louisiana Tech was the place to do that."
Barmore's Lady Techsters have made 19 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament and have reached the Final Four in 13 of those trips with three national titles.
Just last Sunday, Smith was named to the Parade All-America Girls' Basketball Team and she was named the Gatorade State Player of the Year.
Her No. 50 jersey will be hung in the "Ring of Honor" at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.
Smith will join India Lewis as the only Arkansas girls' basketball players to have their jerseys displayed in the Ring of Honor -- an area in the Hall of Fame which recognizes those players who have been named high school All-Americans, collegiate All-Americans or the Gatorade State Players.
Other Eastern Arkansas players drawing postseason honors included Marianna's Tamika Butler, who was named to the All-Arkansas first team; Wendlyn Jones, Blytheville's 5-11 senior center and Kendall Yarbrough, of Valley View, both named to the All-Arkansas second team and Marmaduke's Ashley Hardin, who made the All-America third team.
Honorable Mention was given to Rivercrest's Telica Brown and Jonesboro's Jennifer Sullivan and LeAnn Upshaw.
Harrison center Danielle Allen was named Sophomore of the Year.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WEST HELENA -- The Forrest City Lady Mustangs clinched the 6-East Conference title Wednesday convincingly.
The Lady Mustangs hit six home runs -- two of those grand slams -- to rout the West Helena Lady Cougars 34-6 in their final conference game of the year.
Forrest City improves to 7-5 overall and 5-1 in the league.
They will open postseason play as the No. 1 seeded team from the 6-East at the Region 4 Slow-Pitch Tournament on Saturday, April 28, against the No. 4 seeded team from the 5-East at 11:30 a.m., at Pine Bluff's Region Park.
"I think the fourth-place team might be either Little Rock Central or Little Rock Fair, but I'm not certain about that," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe.
One thing is certain, Forrest City will not have to face Sylvan Hills in the first game of the regional.
The Lady Bears apparently will be the No. 1 seeded team from the 5-East and will be in the upper half of the regional tournament bracket. Forrest City is in the lower portion of the bracket.
Sylvan Hills ended Forrest City's season a year ago when they defeated the Lady Mustangs 5-2 in the opening round of the regional tournament played at Burns Park.
Sylvan Hills went on to win the state title.
The two teams have played each other twice this season with Sylvan Hills winning both games.
Wednesday's game against West Helena, which had been suspended from last week, lasted just one inning as the Lady Mustangs scored 30 runs in the top of the second inning to end the game quickly by sending 31 batters to the plate
The game was suspended by rain last Thursday with West Helena holding a 5-4 lead.
Tyeshia McDaniel hit a grand slam to start the second inning outburst and Leslie Jayroe and Kanetra Pendleton each hit two home runs. Jayroe accounted for the second grand slam. Kimberly Hoots connected for a home run.
Jessica Lewis, McDaniel, Krystal Weaver, Hoots, Jayroe and Jessica Long each scored four runs.
Pendleton, Rachel Sims, Kanneshia Aldridge and Katie Murry each scored three runs.
The Lady Mustangs have two regular season, non-conference games left to play -- both home games -- against Central next Tuesday and Little Rock McClellan McClellan on Thursday.
A men's basketball tournament will be held Saturday, April 21, at the Forrest City Junior High Barn.
The 14-team, single elimination tournament will begin at 8 a.m..
The top three teams will be presented team trophies at the end of the day-long competition.
The tournament is sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha and admission to the tournament is $2 for adults and $1 for children.
The Forrest City Mustangs will host the league-leading Sylvan Hills Bears Friday afternoon at the Sports Complex for a AAAAA-East conference baseball doubleheader at 4 p.m.
Sylvan Hills is 7-1 in the league standings.