By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The West Memphis Blue Devils could make life very interesting in the AAAAA-East Conference tonight, should they get a win over the Forrest City Mustangs.
The Mustangs (10-11, 7-5) will host the Blue Devils (11-10, 6-6) tonight at the Arena in the final home regular-season home game.
Tonight's three-game set begins at 5 p.m. with a JV boys game.
West Memphis still has a very good shot at clinching a playoff spot into the Class AAAAA State Tournament.
Forrest City is tied with Jonesboro in the league standings and own the tie-breaker against the Hurricane, having beaten them twice in conference play.
The recipe for Forrest City is simple -- a win over West Memphis tonight would lock the Mustangs into the state tournament bracket. They defeated the Blue Devils in the first meeting of the season and a win tonight would give them the head-to-head tie-breaker over the Blue Devils.
The Mustangs have one game remaining after tonight's tilt at the Arena -- a road trip to Cabot next Tuesday.
By winning out, the Mustangs could assure themselves of third place in the final standings which would put them against either El Dorado or Camden-Fairview in the state tournament first round.
Jacksonville, which momentarily stopped the Mustangs in their conference tracks Tuesday with a 54-52 overtime at the Arena -- have not been mathematically eliminated from the race.
The Red Devils have a chance to finish out the year at 7-7 in the league.
"Our motto for tonight is 'we win, we're in,'" Lofton said. "But, if we lose, we're still alive, because there's always Tuesday."
In senior girls play, the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils have already locked up a state tournament berth and be the No. 2 seed from the East into the bracket.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs are out of contention for postseason play.
"We want to work hard on breaking their press tonight and give ourselves some scoring opportunities," said FCity Coach Sue Jayroe. "We put the ball up 60 times against Jacksonville, but only hit about 28 percent of those chances. We want to get that many shots tonight but with better percentages with the end result."
The Lady Blue Devils are looking at a possible first-round matchup in the state tournament against either North Little Rock or LR Parkview.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
LONOKE--The seventh-ranked Hughes Blue Devils beat Pine Bluff Dollarway Thursday night 64-52 to advance to Saturday night's championship game at the 6AAA District Tournament at Lonoke.
It was the third time this season Hughes has put away the Cardinals.
The next task for the Blue Devils, 28-1, may be even tougher -- trying to defeat Lonoke for the third time this season and trying to get the job done on Lonoke's home floor.
Lonoke defeated Dumas in Thursday's other semifinal game to get to Saturday's title game.
This year's scenario, so far, is an exact duplicate of last year's district when Hughes beat Dollarway to earn a shot at Lonoke in the finals.
Lonoke won the title a year ago.
Win or lose Saturday, Hughes will enter the Class AAA Region 3 Tournament at Beebe no worse than the No. 2 seed.
Dollarway will head into the regionals as the fourth seed while Dumas goes as the third seed.
Thursday night, Hughes led 20-17 after one period, thanks to a 14-point outburst from Lonnie Smith.
"For some unknown reason, Dollarway forgot to guard Lonnie in the first period," said Hughes Coach Wes Swift. "That's not a good thing to do."
Smith nailed four, threes on his way to a 26-point night.
The Blue Devils led 35-31 at the half and then used a 19-to-6 third period to put the game away, leading 54-37 to start the fourth period.
Robert Davis added 12 points for Hughes while Paul Doolittle finished with nine points.
Brandon Mays, Dollarway's 6-8 center, finished with 16 points.
"We came out focused and got the job done," Swift said. "I was proud of the effort tonight. We played well."
In senior girls' play Thursday, England shocked No. 1 seeded Lonoke and Dollarway got past Dumas.
England and Dollarway will play for the girls' title Saturday at 6 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
ELAINE--The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots lost to Barton 55-46 Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 6AA District at Elaine, but will advance to the Class AA Region 6 tournament as the No. 4 seed.
P-W will more than likely play Augusta in the first round game set for Wednesday, Feb. 21, at Harding Academy.
Augusta and Harding will play for the 2AA South district title tonight.
Leroy Bell led P-W with 14 points against Barton while Michael Barnes finished with 11.
Barton will play Clarendon tonight to determine the opponent for Saturday night's championship game against Altheimer, the district's No. 1 seed.
In junior boys action at the 6AA district, Altheimer rolled over the P-W Junior Patriots 70-31 to advance to Saturday's final.
Vince Jones led P-W with 14 points.
Elaine and Barton play tonight. The winner plays Altheimer Saturday.
Barton's junior girls defeated Marvell 33-23 Thursday to get to Saturday's final game while Gillett and Elaine will meet tonight to decide Barton's opponent.
In senior girls' action, Altheimer held off Marvell 54-53 Thursday and will face Barton tonight in semifinal action.
The winner will play the No. 1 seeded Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots Saturday in the tournament finals.
Should the Lady Patriots win the district title, they would open the Class AA Region 6 tournament against Augusta, the fourth seed from the 2AA-South Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m., at Harding Academy.
Des Arc is the third seed from the 2AA South and would play Barton in the regional first round.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Maybe it was Calvary's new gym floor that helped the Junior Eagles Thursday night.
Maybe Calvary just wanted the game more than Macon Road did.
Whatever it was, the No. 6 seeded Calvary Junior Eagles eliminated the No. 3 seeded Kingsmen Thursday night in the first round of the MACS District, 56-48.
The Junior Eagles will play a semifinal game tonight at 8:30 p.m.
Sawyer Ramsey led Calvary with 19 points, including three, three-pointers while Adam Jackson finished with 17 and Chris Huckaba added 12 points.
Macon Road led 9-3 early before Calvary stormed back to tie the game at 9-9 in the first period and then took a 12-9 lead on the first of Ramsey's treys.
Calvary would not give up the lead for the remainder of the game.
After Macon Road tied the game at 16-16 early in the second period, Huckaba, Jackson and Ramsey put Calvary in front 22-16 with six unanswered points.
Macon Road battled back to trail by three, 26-23 at the half.
Both teams cooled down a little offensively in the third period, but the Junior Eagles maintained their lead and took a 36-30 cushion into the final frame.
Macon Road trimmed the lead to 39-35 with 4:44 to play, but Jackson answered with a pair of two-pointers to put the lead back to 43-37.
With two minutes to play Dustin Clark turned a three-point play that got the Kingsmen within five points, 47-42.
Tyler Heustess canned two free throws and Jackson forced a steal and got the layup for a 51-42 Calvary lead.
Jackson hit five free throws during the final two minutes to keep the Junior Eagles safely in front.
Preston Huffstuttler added four points for the Junior Eagles as did Heustess.
Clark led Macon Road with 14 points while Jacob Newcomb added 13.