By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustangs literally snatched victory from Blytheville's jaws of defeat Tuesday night by putting together what may well be their best second half of the season.
For Blytheville, a team that came into the game as co-leaders in the AAAAA-East and left as the second-place team in the standings, it was matter of not being able to put two good halves of basketball together.
The end result was a 65-61 Forrest City win.
Indeed, for both teams, it was like watching Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde. Blytheville played as well as they have all year in the first half while the Mustangs failed to find any rhythm whatsoever.
"Basically, we gave them too many open looks offensively," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "They responded by hitting five, three-pointers."
The Chickasaws took control early jumping out to a 21-12 first quarter lead. Then they built their lead to a 45-30 halftime advantage.
Many of those points came off Mustang turnovers, which there were plenty of in the first half, but Lofton said those miscues didn't hurt his team nearly as much as the fact that Blytheville was playing with more determination than Forrest City.
Add in Blytheville's execution on offense, which was textbook and it was easy for Lofton to see why his team trailed by 15 at the break.
"Every loose ball, they hustled after and got, they even took balls right out of our hands," Lofton said. "I asked the guys at the half how it felt to let someone else come into your yard and slap you around. That's what Blytheville did to us. They walked in, slapped us around and then dared us to do anything back."
In the third quarter the Mustangs showed they could take Blytheville's best punch and then get back up, when they put together a 17-to-7 run to get within five points to start the final period.
The onslaught continued in the final quarter as the Mustangs outscored Blytheville 18-9 to earn the highly-charged and emotional win.
Forrest City shot 16-of-25 from the field in the second half and outscored Blytheville 35-15.
With the win, Lofton improves to 4-1 against Blytheville on the Mustangs home floor. He is quick to point out the reverse stat -- which shows Lofton 0-5 at Blytheville.
Nonetheless, the Mustangs are 5-3 in the East and tied for third with Jonesboro, a team they have beaten already this year but will have to face one mmore time at Jonesboro.
Four of Forrest City's next six games are home. Through four complete seasons, Lofton is 17-11 at home in East conference games but only 10-18 on the road.
He knows each of the "backside" or second half of the league schedule, is big.
Especially when you're trying make the postseason state tournament cut and especially now that the Mustangs are hosting the AAAAA state tournament.
Forrest City will host Sylvan Hills Friday at Mustang Arena.
Michael Boles was honored during Tuesday night's Forrest City basketball as the honorary "All-Time Favorite Mustang Fan." Boles was presented a Mustang jacket, a Rumble on the Ridge shirt, a Mt. Dew cap and a lifetime pass to all Forrest City athletic events. Wayne Jones, Forrest City School Board President and Alice Barnes, Forrest City Associate Superintendent made the presentations to Boles, who can always be seen on the sidelines of Mustang football games, drying off footballs, running bottles of water to the players and staying behind to pick up the trash as well as lending his vocal support. At basketball games, Boles is one of the crowd's biggest cheerleaders.