By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BLYTHEVILLE--It was a classic battle. A slugfest. Two AAAAA-East teams going toe-to-toe.
It was also a game of missed opportunities for the Forrest City Mustangs who have not won at Blytheville since Dwight Lofton took over the basketball reins in 1996.
Leading 49-45 Forrest City squandered their advantage when James Johnson missed the front end of two one-and-ones late in the fourth period Tuesday and Daffy Norment missed a three-pointer giving the Chickasaws a 55-51 conference win.
Blytheville improves to 9-4 for the year and moved into a three-way tie for first in the East with Little Rock Mills and Jonesboro. All three teams are 2-0 in the league.
Mills, ranked eighth in the state, was idle Tuesday night.
Blytheville led 38-35 to start the final frame, which was back-and-forth until the 2:30 mark when Kwantin King nailed a running bank shot, drew the foul and hit the free throw to put the Mustangs in front 49-45.
Johnson missed the first of the two one-and-ones and Blytheville answered by cutting the lead to 49-47. Johnson missed his second chance from the foul line and Blytheville tied the game at 49-all. Seconds later, the Chicks took a 51-49 lead.
Norment tied the game at 51-51 with 30 seconds to play but the Chicks answered with a basket by Curtis Smith for a 53-51 cushion.
Norment's three-point attempt with eight seconds to play rimmed off and Blytheville hauled in the rebound.
The Mustangs trailed 26-20 at the half and fell behind by ten, 32-22 midway through the third period.
A 13-to-2 Forrest City run, capped by Brandon Cochran's bank shot with two minutes left in the period gave Forrest City its first lead of the game at 35-34.
Smith led all scorers with 23 points, nine of that total coming in the fourth period.
Norment led Forrest City with 19 points while Johnson finished with 14 and King helped out with eight.
The Mustangs slip to 4-7 overall and 1-1 in the league.
The Mustangs will host Jonesboro Friday, Jan. 12, at Mustang Arena.
Jonesboro held off West Memphis Tuesday night 42-41 in a league game played at West Memphis.
The Hurricane are 9-4 and 2-0.
Lorenzo Hampton led Jonesboro with 18 points.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs suffered their worst loss of the season Tuesday night, falling 54-23 in AAAAA-East Conference play at Blytheville.
The Lady Mustangs slip to 4-5 overall and 0-2 in the league.
Caronica Randle led the Lady Mustangs with six points.
"We played hard, but it wasn't with the hunger that we had early in the year," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe.
The Lady Mustangs will host the Jonesboro Lady Hurricane Friday at Mustangs Arena.
Jonesboro defeated West Memphis Tuesday 57-44.
Jennifer Sullivan and LeAnn Upshaw combined for 40 points to lead Jonesboro, 14-1 overall, 2-0 in the East.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Hughes Blue Devils made it 10 consecutive wins Tuesday night, trouncing England 92-49 at Blue Devil Gym.
Robert Davis led a quartet of Hughes players in double figure scoring with 15 points. Lonnie Smith added 13 while Paul Doolittle and Chris Crawford each scored 12 points.
The Blue Devils are 18-1 overall and 4-0 in the 6AAA Conference and ranked second in Class AAA.
Tuesday's win sets up a Friday showdown against Lonoke, al,so undefeated in the league.
Hughes led 29-6 after one period and pushed their lead to 55-12 at the half.
It was the second straight night the Blue Devils put up 50 or more first-half points. They led DeWitt 50-23 at the half in a game played Monday.
The Hughes Junior Blue Devils played their first conference game of the season Tuesday and like the senior high team, made it look easy taking a 64-28 win over the England Junior Lions.
David Dowden led the way for Hughes with 13 points while Courtley London, Ayodele Ogunsakin and Mario Doolittle each finished with 10 points.
The Junior Blue Devils are 6-0 and 1-0 for the year.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BARTON--It took the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots two minutes to score the first points of Tuesday's 6AA Conference game against the Barton Lady Bears.
And it took the team almost one full period to gain control of the game.
When they did, they rolled to their seventh consecutive win over the Lady Bears, a 72-38 final, paced by Erica Smith's 31 points.
While Smith led all scorers, it was teammate, junior point guard Nikki Bass who ignited the Lady Patriot offense.
Bass, battling the flu and not at full strength, did not start as she normally does, and did not enter the game until late in the first period with the Lady Patriots clinging to a 13-10 lead.
Bass scored all eight of her points in the second period as P-W put together a 21-to-6 run to take control of the game and lead 34-16 at the half.
The Lady Patriots, ranked first in Class AA and No. 3 in the state polls, led 54-28 to start the fourth frame.
Melanie Baker finished in double figures for the Lady Patriots with 12 points while Carlene Gardner added six and Beth Varvil and Sheryl Moore chipped in with four points each.
Guard Trinia Williams led Barton with 15 points.
Palestine-Wheatley improves to 14-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots made several runs at Barton Tuesday night, including a third-period rally, but failed in their bid to overtake the Bears in 6AA Conference action.
After the Patriots trimmed a 10-point Barton lead down to just one point 37-36 with 1:39 to play in the third period, the Bears just as quickly regrouped to take a 64-50 win.
Barton improves to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the league while P-W falls to 4-9 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
Barton led 30-20 before P-W rallied to cut the lead to one.
Barton led 39-36 to start the final period and pushed that to 47-39 with six minutes to play after forcing three straight Patriot turnovers.
Leroy Bell led Palestine-Wheatley with 26 points, including 10 free throws. Michael Barnes added 14 points and J.J. Love helped out with six points.
Barton led 16-12 after one period and 26-18 at the half.
The P-W Junior Patriots got 14 points from Vince Jones in a 41-35 win over Barton's Junior Bears.