By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BRYANT -- The Forrest City Mustangs open play tonight at the Bryant Invitational Tournament.
The Mustangs are still looking for their first win of the year. Coming off a Tuesday loss to the Hughes Blue Devils, Forrest City will be looking for that first "W" tonight when they take on CAC at 6 p.m.
The team's prognosis is better this week than it was two weeks ago.
Returning to the starting lineup Tuesday was 6-0 junior guard Kerry Evans, who has been missing in action with a broken foot.
Evans led all scorers at Hughes with 25 points.
"It was one of the quietest 25-point performances I've seen in a while," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "Getting Evans back has made us a better basketball team. It gives me some room to put some kids in other spots which helps."
A year ago in the Bryant Tournament, the Mustangs went two and out losing to Little Rock Hall 53-52 and Little Rock Mills 63-48.
A win over CAC today brings the Mustangs back on Friday to take on the Bryant-Stuttgart winner at 7:30 p.m.
A loss to CAC puts the Mustangs against the Bryant-Stuttgart loser Friday at 6 p.m.
Other first-round games today have Bryant vs Stuttgart at 7:30 p.m.; Sylvan Hills vs Arkansas Baptist at 9 p.m. and Hall vs Mills at 4:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriot Coach Beverly Bass will record another "first" Friday night.
Her Lady Patriots will host Cotton Plant in a three-game nonconference set which also has the P-W Junior Lady Patriots and Patriots scheduled for action.
"The senior boys and the junior high teams have played Cotton Plant on a regular basis," Bass said. "I've never played them since I've been here at P-W. My girls have always been in the Paragould tournament and we will be again this year, but the tournament dates were changed."
Friday's set begins at 5 p.m., when the junior girls take the floor.
The Junior Lady Patriots are coming off a big win over DeWitt on Monday at Wheatley Gym.
Bass' Lady Patriots, 2-6, are coming off a 54-45 loss to Arkansas Baptist on Tuesday.
"We didn't get the win and we haven't improved much since we opened the season against them," Bass said of Arkansas Baptist.
P-W took a one-point 46-45 win over the Lady Eagles at Patriot Gym last month.
"The difference was, they scored 54 points this time and won and we scored one point less than we did against them the first time and lost," Bass said. "They got better and we didn't."
Bass was pleased with the effort by Beth Varvil, who played almost the entire game.
"Beth has been working hard in practice and she earned and deserved the playing time," Bass said.
Varvil finished with four points and some key rebounds for the Lady Patriots.
The Patriots, 1-6, lost to Arkansas Baptist 78-38 Tuesday.
A year ago, the Patriots defeated Cotton Plant 46-29.
The Forrest City Blue and White junior high basketball teams will go head-to-head tonight at Mustang Arena.
The three-game set starts at 5 p.m., when the eighth-grade boys tip.
Hughes will host Brinkley Friday night to open the 6AAA Conference portion of their schedule.
The three-game set begins at 5 p.m., with a junior high girls' game.
* PREP BASKETBALL
Thursday, December 6
Lonoke Invitational - Junior Boys
Hughes vs Pulaski Academy, 5 p.m.
Bryant Invitational Tournament at Bryant High School
Senior Boys
LR Hall vs LR Mills, 4:30 p.m.
Forrest City vs CAC, 6 p.m.
Bryant vs Stuttgart, 7:30 p.m.
Sylvan Hills vs Arkansas Baptist, 9 p.m.
Junior High at Mustang Arena
Forrest City White vs Forrest City Blue, 5 p.m.
(8th-grade boys, 9th girls, boys)
Friday, December 7
Brinkley at Hughes, 5 p.m.
(Jr. Girls, Sr. Girls, Sr. Boys)
Cotton Plant at Palestine-Wheatley, 5 p.m.
(Jr. Girls, Sr. Girls, Sr, Boys)