By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
It's been a long dry spell for the Palestine-Wheatley Patriot and Lady Patriot basketball teams.
The senior boys have not played since Dec. 8 and the girls have not played since Dec. 9.
The Patriots also lost some playing time over the Christmas break when the Arkansas Tech Tournament of Champions was cancelled due to the ice storm.
Tonight, the two teams will try to make up for lost time when they host Marvell in a 6AA Conference affair at Patriot Gym.
The three-game set begins at 5 p.m., when the Junior Patriots tip off. The senior girls' game follows at approximately 6 p.m. and the senior boys will play the final game at about 7:30 p.m.
The Lady Patriots (11-1) have owned the Lady Mustangs over the past four meetings, outscoring Marvell 370-to-25 and holding Marvell to less than 10 points in each of the four games.
In four meetings against the Marvell Mustangs, the Patriots are 2-2.
JONESBORO--The Hughes Blue Devils picked up a belated Christmas present Saturday night from the Rivercrest Colts at the 54th annual Northeast Arkansas Invitational Tournament in Jonesboro.
The second-seeded Blue Devils scored the first nine points of the boys' AAA championship game and never looked back in crushing top-seeded Rivercrest 75-42 at the ASU Convocation Center.
Rivercrest has won almost as many NEA titles (5) as Hughes has made NEA appearances (6).
But Saturday night, the Blue Devils made the Colts their seventh straight victim and in doing so pushed their season record to 15-1.
Hughes knocked off E.P.C., Pocahontas and Brookland to reach the finals of the NEA tournament.
Hughes used a smothering defensive press and a lightning-quick fast break to totally dominate the Colts, 10-2 for the year.
Junior Lonnie Smith, who is the lone returning starter off last year's state tournament semifinalist, poured in a game-high 21 points in only about two quarters of action as the Blue Devils cleared the bench midway through the third quarter.
Sophomore Malcolm Curne chipped in 14 points and Robert Davis added 10 for the Blue Devils.
Brandon Love was Rivercrest's only player in double figures with 10.
Hughes led 18-6 after a quarter, but that was just the beginning of the storm for the Colts.
The Blue Devils used a 20-2 run in the second period to lead 38-8 with just over two minutes left before halftime.
Hughes went on to take a 45-10 halftime advantage.
The Blue Devils shot 54 percent from the field (18-of-33) in the first half and forced 16 Rivercrest turnovers in the opening two quarters alone as they cruised to the 35-point halftime advantage.
In addition, the Colts shot just 24 percent (5-of-21) in that opening half.
Hughes coach Wes Swift said his team played by far its best game of the tournament Saturday night, but also it relished the underdog role in the finals against the tournament's top seed.
"Our kids really came out focused tonight," said Swift, whose team led by as many as 44 points early in the second half. "We were the favorites in the first three games and tonight they were kind of the underdogs and they relish that role."
Rivercrest coach Rick Wilson, whose Colts are the only team in the tournament's history to ever win four straight championships, had no explanation for why his team struggled so badly in the title game.
"I really don't have any way to explain it," Wilson said. "I knew they had an outstanding team, but I didn't envision us coming out and playing so poor in all aspects."
The Colts do not have a senior on their 12-man roster and Swift thought that was a key after his team got out to a big lead.
"His kids are really young," Swift said. "They are really a very talented ballclub. They're just young."
Even Swift was a little surprised at his team's total domination.
"I thought this game was going down the wire," Swift said. "Rivercrest is not nearly as bad as they played tonight and we're not nearly as good as we played."
The Blue Devils did not play in the NEA tournament last season.
In other NEA action, Marmaduke won the A-AA girls' title while Rector won the A-AA boys' title. Blytheville won the AAAA-AAAAA girls' title.
The Jacksonville Red Devil Classic finally got underway last Friday, two days later than originally scheduled.
In first-round boys' action, the Wynne Yellowjackets defeated Conway 47-38 in overtime and then knocked off the host team Jacksonville on Saturday to advance to the tournament finals, where they will play either LR McClellan or NLR on Saturday
It is Wynne's first-ever appearance in the Red Devil Classic. Wynne dropped out of the NEA in Jonesboro to play the Jacksonville tournament.
The Wynne Lady Yellowjackets lost to NLR Friday and Searcy Saturday in their bracket and will play for seventh place against LR McClellan on Saturday, Jan. 6, at 10:30 a.m.