By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
LITTLE ROCK--Needing a split of their two AAAAA-East Conference road games this week to stay in position to make the state tournament cut, the Forrest City Mustangs will now have to look ahead to Jonesboro on Friday.
The Little Rock Mills Comets completed the "hat trick" Tuesday night at the Galaxy, by beating the Mustangs 78-62. It was Mills' third win over Forrest City this season.
The Mustangs slip to fourth place in the East standings at 6-4 and 9-10 overall. The Comets improve to 9-1 in the league and 16-4 and can finish no worse than fourth place.
"We knew we needed to win one of this week's two road games to keep ourselves in position for the state tournament," Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton said. "If we lose both, we're not completely out of the running, it would just make things more difficult for us. Now we have to look at winning at Jonesboro on Friday. Every game left on the schedule is an important game."
The Mustangs own one win over the Hurricane this season, a 57-37 win at Mustang Arena.
Next week, the Mustangs have two home games -- Jacksonville and West Memphis.
Carlos Merriweather scored 19 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead Mills who secured a berth to the Class AAAAA State Tournament, which begins Feb. 27 at Forrest City.
Mills began to turn the game in their favor midway through the second quarter, when sophomore Bam Doyne, who finished with 18 points, drained a three-pointer with 4:19 to give the Comets a 26-23 lead.
The Comets never trailed after that.
The Mustangs closed in on Mills in the third period when they cut the lead to 39-37. A Merriweather layup by started a 11-to-3 Mills scoring run that put the game on ice.
Lofton said Mills hurt the Mustangs on the boards, especially in the second half.
"Merriweather stepped up and proved he's one of the top players in the state. They hit some dagger shots against us in the second half. Every time we got close, they would knock down a big shot."
Mills finished with a 51-36 rebounding advantage over the Mustangs.
Bradley Griffin added 18 for Mills.
Daffy Norment led Forrest City with 19 points including five, three pointers, while James Johnson added 17 and Jason Jones 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Mills led 17-16 after one period and 39-31 at the half.
Blytheville 55, Sylvan Hills 49
Blytheville remained solid in second place in the East boys' standings, defeating Sylvan Hills 55-49 Tuesday.
Curtis Smith scored 13 points and Rodney Ferguson 12 as Blytheville improved to 15-6 overall and 8-2 in the East.
Jeremy Brown scored 20 points for the Bears.
West Memphis 54, Cabot 38
Mike McGee scored 13 points to help the West Memphis Blue Devils get past Cabot 54-38 Tuesday.
Cabot scored only four third-quarter points after forcing a 25-25 half time tie.
Tommy Williams led Cabot with 18 points.
Jonesboro 49, Jacksonville 47
Lorenzo Hampton hit two free throws with three seconds left to help Jonesboro defeat Jacksonville 49-47 in a AAAAA-East Conference game at the Devils' Den Tuesday night.
The Red Devils (9-12, 4-6) rallied from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a 47-45 lead with 46 seconds left to play.
Jonesboro (15-7, 7-3) take over sole possession of third place in the East standings after Forrest City was beaten by LR Mills.
Hampton, coming off a school record-setting 47-point game last Friday, finished with 26.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
LITTLE ROCK--Forrest City's Deosha Agnew picked the right time to have her best game of the season.
Unfortunately, for Agnew and the Lady Mustangs, so did Little Rock Mills guard Anita Harden.
Anita Hardin scored 19 points in a 22-point Mills' fourth-quarter to lead the Lady Comets to their first AAAAA-East Conference win of the season, a 67-62 win over Forrest City Tuesday night at the Galaxy.
Mills improves to 2-17 overall and 1-9 while the Lady Mustangs slip to 5-12 and 1-9.
Forrest City won the first meeting between the two teams 54-23.
Hardin finished with 42 points, including five of Mills' eight threes.
Agnew finished with 19 points and had 10 rebounds to go along with her total.
"Deosha played her best game this season on both sides of the ball," said Lady Mustang Coach Sue Jayroe. "She was going strong and we had her defending against Hardin during the game. Mills played good basketball."
Caronica Randle added 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kenetra Pendleton finished with 13 points and nine rebounds and Leslie Jayroe chipped in eight points and grabbed nine rebounds.
"We played a heck of a game," Sue Jayroe said. "Mills got hot, especially Hardin and that was the difference. But we played a great game."
Once again, Forrest City struggled from the foul line, hitting only hit 10-of-30 free throw attempts.
Jayroe compared Hardin to Palestine-Wheatley senior Erica Smith.
"When she (Hardin) wanted to score, she scored," Jayroe said. "If you were a fan who really didn't care which team won it was a great ball game to watch."
Forrest City led 18-8 after one period but fell behind 28-24 at the half.
The Lady Mustangs put together a 15-to-9 run in the third period to lead 39-37 to begin the fourth period.
The Lady Mustangs will face Jonesboro Friday.
Jonesboro 63, Jacksonville 57
Jonesboro stayed perfect in conference play, pushing their AAAAA-East record to 10-0 Tuesday with a 63-57 win over Jacksonville.
Latoya Worthen and Leann Upshaw scored 21 points each for the Lady Hurricane.
Jacksonville (13-7, 6-4 AAAAA-East) falls into a tie for third in the conference with Blytheville. Both are 6-4.
West Memphis 77, Cabot 49
West Memphis took a giant step toward locking up the No. 2 seed in the East Tuesday by defeating Cabot 77-49.
West Memphis improves to 15-6 overall and 8-2 in the league standings.
The Lady Blue Devils led 19-8 after the first quarter and stayed in front 43-25 at half.
Amber Gean led West Memphis with 14 points and was one of four West Memphis players with at least 11 points.
Kim Turner added 12, while Jocelyn Love and Ashley Stinson each had 11.
Michelle Simon led Cabot with 16 points and Lauren Semingson and Jamie Coker 11 apiece.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
ALTHEIMER--The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots won the 6AA Conference title Tuesday, rolling up Altheimer 61-27.
It is the third straight conference title for the Lady Patriots, 26-1 overall and 11-0 in the league.
They have one regular season conference game remaining Thursday night when they host Elaine at Patriot Gym.
Erica Smith, playing for the first time since breaking a tooth in Friday's game against Barton, responded with 26 points while Carlene Gardner added 10 points.
Nikki Bass chipped in seven points and Tammy Griffin and Nikita Love added four points each.
The Lady Patriots, ranked second in the state rankings and first in Class AA, rolled out to a 19-6 lead after one period and then went on a 31-to-9 run in the second period.
The Altheimer Lady Red Devils had just five players dressed out for the game.
Senior Boys
Altheimer 78, Palestine-Wheatley 45
Leroy Bell scored 18 points and was the only Palestine-Wheatley player to hit double figures Tuesday in a 78-45 loss to the Altheimer Red Devils.
P-W slips to 8-12 overall for the year and 5-6 in the 6AA Conference.
"They shot lights out and we couldn't hit anything," said P-W Coach Terry Clardy.
The Patriots will host Elaine Thursday night for "Parent's Night." The three-game set begins at 5 p.m.
All four Palestine-Wheatley basketball teams begin district tournament next week at Elaine.
Richard Findley, of Forrest City, hit his first -ever hole-in-one Sunday at Ridgecrest Country Club.
He did so on the 140-yard hole no. 8 using a seven iron.
Findley was playing in a three-some with Jim Steinmetz and Jim Murtishaw.