By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
In the final analysis, it came to three minutes and forty seconds Tuesday night at Mustang Arena.
The eighth-ranked Little Rock Mills Comets scored 14 unanswered points to end the first half and went on to hold off the Forrest City Mustangs 63-54.
Leading 16-14, with 3:40 to play in the second period, the Comets scored the final 14 points of the half to lead 30-14 at the half.
They used the one-two punch from big men Carlos Merriweather and Nathan Bemis.
In senior girls' play, the Lady Mustangs picked up their first East conference win of the year by putting away the Mills Lady Comets 54-23.
It was the Mustangs first home conference loss since the 1998-99 season and ends their home streak at eight straight games.
However, Forrest City didn't go quietly. The Mustangs cut the Comets' lead to 57-52 on a Jason Jones layup with 37 seconds to play.
Mills hit six of their final eight free throws to ice the game and took advantage of a pair of key Forrest City turnovers in the final 30 seconds.
Mills led 10-6 after a close first period in which both teams came out tight.
The Mustangs cut the lead to 34-24 with 3:59 to play in the third and trailed 42-31 on a long Daffy Norment three at the buzzer to start the final frame.
Merriweather finished with 18 points and Bemis added 12 as did guard Bradley Griffin. Quincy Watson had nine and Bam Doyne chipped in seven.
Norment led all scorers with 20 points. James Johnson had nine points, Josh Brown eight and Kwantin King seven.
Deosha Agnew scored 16 points, including 11 in the third period, to spark the Lady Mustangs to a 54-23 win over Mills.
Caronica Randle added 10 points while Kanetra Pendleton hit a season-high 13 points.
Forrest City led 8-2 after one period and 18-14 at the half.
The Lady Mustangs opened the third period with a full court press that rsulted in three steals to fuel a 10-0 run to lead 28-14. They led 35-19 to start the final period.
Forrest City limited Mills (1-12) to just nine second-half points.
The Lady Mustangs improve to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the AAAAA-East Conference.
In other East games, Jonesboro defeated Jacksonville 66-46 but may have lost star guard LeAnn Upshaw for the season, after she injured her knee with just more than two minutes left in the game.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
ELAINE--The third-ranked Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots provided most of the heat Tuesday in Elaine's cold gym.
"We got there and the heat wasn't on and it was really cold inside their building," said P-W Coach Beverly Bass.
It didn't take long for things to heat up.
The Lady Patriots won going away 84-26 to improve to 16-1 for the year.
Erica Smith had 23 points while Carlene Gardner added 13 and Nikki Bass finished with 12 points. Brittney Flenory chipped in nine points while Melanie Baker added eight and Tammy Griffin helped out with seven. Beth Varvil had six and Nikita Love finished with four.
The Lady Patriots led 20-6 after one period and then put together. a 31-to-6 scoring run in the third period while emptying their bench.
In senior boys play, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots ended a three-game slide by defeating Elaine 75-68.
The Patriots got 24 points each from Leroy Bell and Michael Barnes. Derrick Franklin added nine points while Roman Harris had eight and Preston Fingers helped out with six points.
The Patriots improve to 5-10 and 3-3 in the 6AA Conference.
PINE BLUFF--Until Tuesday night, the Hughes Blue Devils had never won a basketball game on Pine Bluff Dollarway's home floor.
Lonnie Smith's career-high 39 points helped change all that as the No. 2 ranked Blue Devils clipped the Cardinals 84-82 in overtime.
The two teams ended regulation tied at 67-67.
Hughes outscored Dollarway 17-to-15 in the overtime period -- hitting 11 of 13 free throws -- to post the win, running their overall season mark to 20-1 and ending the first half of the round-robin 6AAA Conference schedule as the leaders at 6-0.
Lonoke is second in the league standings at 5-1.
Smith scored 19 of his point total in the third period.
"He just totally took over for us the third," said Hughes Coach Wes Swift.
The Blue Devils trailed by 13 at the half, 40-27, after a sluggish first half, according to Swift.
The Blue Devils opened the second half with full court man defensive pressure and outscored Dollarway 27-to-14 to tie the game at 54-54 to start the final frame.
Both teams scored 13 points in the fourth to end regulation locked in a tie.
Smith had eight points at the half. He hit 13-of-14 free throws.
Robert Davis added 20 points for Hughes while Paul Doolittle finished with 10 points.
William Shorter led Pine Bluff with 29 points and Cedric Dunn added 14 points.
In junior boys play, Dollarway took a 46-38 win, using a 20-to-4 run in the third period.
Courtley London led Hughes with 11 points while Adoyele Ogunsakin helped out with seven.
The Junior Blue Devils are 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the league. They defeated Lonoke last Friday 34-32 with 13 points from David Dowden.
The Lady Blue Devils fell to Dollarway 67-12 Tuesday while the Hughes junior girls won 40-9.
Hughes will host Brinkley Friday at Blue Devil Gym.