By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City's Mustangs will try to take another step toward postseason play tonight when they host the Sylvan Hills Bears in a AAAAA-East battle at Mustang Arena, where homecoming activities will be held.
Forrest City is coming off a 65-61 win over Blytheville Tuesday which lifted the Mustangs to 5-3 in the conference standings.
The Bears, 60-47 losers to Cabot on Tuesday, are 0-7 in the league.
The Mustangs are looking for their third straight win.
"It doesn't matter if the Bears come in here 7-0 or 0-7," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "We have to take every team seriously. Each game from here on out is important. We have to take care of our own business."
The Mustangs won the first meeting over Sylvan Hills 69-49.
On the girls' side, The Lady Mustangs will not be without starter Kanetra Pendleton for tonight's conference matchup against the Lady Bears.
Pendleton injured her left hand Tuesday against Blytheville and was taken to the hospital for x-rays at the half.
"We initially thought she may have broken her hand," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "But it turned out to be only a bad bruise. She will play tonight, but we will have her hand taped and wrapped. She worked out some this morning and she seems to be okay."
While the Lady Mustangs get Pendleton back, they won't have junior starting forward Deosha Agnew for the next two games. Agnew is being treated for a stomach virus. Jayroe says Agnew won't return to action until Feb. 8.
The Lady Mustangs are mired in the throes of a four-game losing streak and stand at 5-10 overall and 1-7 in the league.
The Lady Bears, after a fast start, have slipped to 2-5 in the league and 5-8 overall.
The Lady Bears won the first meeting 54-34.
In other East conference games tonight, Little Rock Mills travels to West Memphis, Jonesboro goes to Cabot and Blytheville goes to Jacksonville.
In other games involving area teams, the ninth-ranked Hughes Blue Devils will play at England and will be looking for their 16th straight victory.
Hughes is 23-1 for the year and 9-0 in the 6AAA standings.
Palestine-Wheatley will host the Barton Bears tonight for homecoming activities at Patriot Gym.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
FAYETTEVILLE -- The Cedric Houston recruiting saga is over and now he's a Razorback.
Clarendon High School's Houston (5-foot-11, 199, 4.35 in the 40-yard dash), a running back, verbally committed to Tennessee after a Jan. 12-14 visit to Knoxville, turning down Arkansas and others. Houston had verbally committed to Arkansas last year on Arkansas coach Houston Nutt's birthday, but backed off that verbal pledge earlier this fall.
Late Thursday night, Houston switched back to the Razorbacks.
"I'm a Razorback," Houston said. "I'm throwing in the towel with the recruiting. I'm finished and I can't wait to sign with the Razorbacks Wednesday."
As a senior, Houston rushed for 1,735 yards and 31 touchdowns on 167 carries. Houston was recently named to the Parade All-American squad. He is one of three in-state players headed to Arkansas that was named to the squad. The others are Camden Fairview offensive lineman Shawn Andrews (6-5, 335, 5.4) and Harding Academy linebacker Jeb Huckeba (6-5, 210, 4.47).
"I almost made a big mistake," Houston said. "I got caught up in all the stuff surrounding Tennessee, but it's here in Arkansas that people know who I am and love me. The people of Arkansas are why I'm going to be a Razorback. They really care for me."
New Clarendon football coach Bobby Hart was the target of some accusations from UA officials on Thursday.
Nutt was upset that Hart had reportedly told Tennessee assistant coach Steve Caldwell that Arkansas assistant Danny Nutt had offered Houston a new vehicle to sign with the Razorbacks.
The Tennessee assistant coach supposedly told someone in Knoxville, Tenn., about the allegations and that person reportedly notified Arkansas director of football operations Louis Campbell.
"I didn't do that," Hart said Thursday night. "I have no reason to believe that anything improper with Cedric's recruiting has taken place by anyone at Arkansas or anywhere else. I never told a Tennessee coach that and have no idea how that got started."
Houston supported coach Nutt's claim that nothing was ever offered to him by the UA.
"That's a bunch of bull," Houston said. "No one has offered me a single thing."
Hart knows that Houston saying he was going to Tennessee after previously committing to Arkansas didn't exactly cast the new coach in a good light around some of the state.
"The only person I'm for in this entire recruiting process is Cedric," Hart said. "I'm not against anyone. The best thing for me would be for Cedric to go to Arkansas. Cedric came to me in early September and told me he wasn't sure he still wanted to go to Arkansas. I told him to be honest with coach Nutt and tell him the truth."
Hart said he hopes there's no hard feelings between himself and the staff at Arkansas.
"I hate to see this thing get ugly," Hart said. "I'm not going to air this thing out in the press."
Hart also denied accusations that he hid Houston out with a Tennessee assistant recently.
"That Thursday was what we called an SEC day here," Hart said. "We had coaches from Tennessee, Arkansas and Ole Miss all at the school that day. Cedric told the Ole Miss coach he wasn't interested. Cedric was in the counselor's office with coach Caldwell going over his transcript. I thought Cedric had gone home and coach (Danny) Nutt went there looking for him. I made sure coach Nutt got to talk to Cedric before he left."
Hart hopes things with the Arkansas coaches can be cleared at some point in the future.
"I feel I've been fair to everyone," Hart said. "It's frustrating. I feel I've done nothing wrong nor do I believe anyone at Arkansas has done anything wrong."
Houston will play both football and basketball at UA.
WEST MEMPHIS--Shari Rogers scored 20 points Thursday night to help lead the Forrest City White Lady Mustangs past West Memphis Wonder 48-41.
Sequoria Grady added 13 points for Forrest City while Viveca Kimble chipped in seven. Teela Lee had four.
The White Lady Mustangs improve to 4-14 for the year and the win snapped a four-game slide by the girls.
Forrest City led 17-12 after one period and 28-21 at the half.
Wonder outscored Forrest City 12-to-7 in the third to trail by two, 35-33 to start the fourth period.
The White Lady Mustangs hit six three-pointers in the game, three of those by Grady.
Junior Boys
WMemphis Wonder 52, FC White Mustangs 20
The White Mustangs never got out of the starting blocks Thursday against West Memphis Wonder, losing 52-20.
Wonder opened a 15-2 lead after one period and pushed that to 26-9 at the half.
The White Mustangs fall to 4-13 for the year.
Desma McCoy scored 16 points for Wonder, 16-1 for the year.
Goldie Hicks scored eight for Forrest City and Lorenzo Spearman added seven points.
In eighth-grade action,Wonder took a 37-21 win over the White Mustangs.
Cameron Henderson had 10 points for Forrest City.
Junior Girls
Turrell 43, Hughes 41 OT
The Hughes Junior Lady Blue Devils lost in overtime to Turrell Thursday night 43-41 in a game played at Hughes.
Victoria Doolittle led Hughes by scoring 12 points. Shemecka Porter and Latisha James each added eight points. Hughes (7-6) led 15-9 after one period and 25-20 at the half before Turrell rallied for the win.
Hughes will take on England tonight. in a battle for third place in the 6AAA conference standings.
The district tournament begins Monday, Feb. 5, at Lonoke.
The Forrest City Lady Mustang softball team hit off the pitching machine Thursday for the first time and second-year Coach Sue Jayroe said it "enhanced the practice session."
The Lady Mustangs will open their final slow-pitch softball season on March 5.
"The practices are going well," Jayroe said. "We still have several girls who are involved in basketball who haven't been able to practice with us yet, but so far things are looking good."
Jayroe said when she gets all of her girls to the softball field, she will have a roster of about 20.
"We have several returning players and we are looking for good things this season."
The Lady Mustangs will be in a conference this year with Osceola, Stuttgart and West Helena.
The Crowley's Ridge Strutters Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will hold their second annual membership drive, fund raising banquet and auction on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 6 p.m., at the Forrest City Civic Center. There will be door prizes and dinner at 7 p.m. The Strutters will hold a raffle for the 2000 Rifle of the Year, a Browning BPS 12-gauge rifle. Tickets for the banquet, which includes a years membership into the chapter, are $40 for a single and $55 for couples. Youth, ages seven and under, will be admitted free while youths, ages 8-18 (Jakes) can purchase tickets for $10. For more info, call Randy Baldwin at 633-4477 or (870) 270-0050.