By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots got 32 points from Erica Smith Friday night in shutting down Ouachita 62-31 in a nonconference game played at Patriot Gym.
Following a close first half, the Lady Patriots, ranked third in the state and first in Class AA, outscored the Lady Warriors 17-to-6 in the third period to put the game away.
P-W led 14-6 after one period and 27-21 at the half.
By the end of the third, the Lady Patriots led 44-27 and gave up just four points in the fourth period to Ouachita.
P-W improves to 17-1 overall while Ouachita, ranked fourth in Class A, falls to 16-5.
Melanie Baker came out with the hot shooting hand for the Lady Patriots, scoring 10 of her 16 total points in the first half. Tammy Griffin added eight while Nikki Bass, Sheryl Moore and Carlene Gardner each had two points for P-W.
Freshman guard Shana Barker led Ouachita with 10 points while Natalie Harrell had nine.
The Lady Patriots will travel to Gillett Tuesday for a 6AA matchup before opening play at the Dual State Tournament in Junction City at 6:45 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 24.
P-W, the tournament's top seeded team, will play Huttig, a 41-23 winner over Taylor on Saturday.
Huttig is 10-12 for the year. The Lady Eagles built a 25-10 halftime lead over Taylor and the margin never dipped below 14 points in the second half.
Tabatha Burson led a balanced attack with nine points and three steals with Brittney
In other girls' games Saturday, Waldo defeated Mt. Holly 63-36. Waldo takes on Strong Thursday at 4:35 p.m.
Senior Boys
Palestine-Wheatley 50, Ouachita 31
Leroy Bell struck for 23 points and Michael Barnes added 13 as the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots dropped the Ouachita Warriors 50-31 Friday in nonconference action.
Bell had eight points each in the first and third periods.
P-W improves to 6-9 for the year while Ouachita falls to 3-17. Cody Parrish led the Warriors with 11 points.
The Patriots led 8-5 after one period and 18-13 at the half after freezing the ball late in the first half.
Bell opened the second period with a long three and DeVille Pickett's layup left P-W in front 15-8. Barnes hit a three to make it 18-11 before P-W Coach Terry Clardy called for the freeze at the four minute mark.
A Bell fade-away basket and a layup to open the third period let the patriots take a 36-23 lead to start the fourth frame. Oliver Smith added back-to-back field goals and Bell finished the third period with a two-handed layup and and a put-back basket after a miss by Barnes.
The Patriots went to the four-corner stall with two minutes left in the game which resulted in a driving layup by Barnes.
P-W finished the game with three sophomores -- Quentin Mason, Pickett and Marcus Pendleton on the floor alongside Darran Johnson and Jonathan Beasley.
Barnes scored six of his 13 points in the fourth period. Smith added eight for the Patriots.
The Patriots will travel to Gillett Tuesday night for a 6AA game against the Wolves.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Hughes Blue Devils have been making a serious statement in Class AAA all season long, grabbing the No. 2 ranking in the boys' side.
Friday night, the Blue Devils won their 13th straight game, beating Brinklery 94-48 to improve to 21-1 overall for the year and 7-0 in the 6AAA Conference.
By Sunday, they had moved into the state's overall rankings at No. 10.
Robert Davis led the Blue Devils with 17 points while Lonnie Smith and Jermaine Davis finished with 11 points each. Chris Crawford and Tim Jones added nine points each and DeMarcus Burks finished with eight points.
After Brinkley led 14-13 to end the first period, Hughes used a 28-to-7 scoring run in the second period to effectively put away the Tigers.
Johnny Washington finished with 10 points for the Blue Devils.
In other 6AAA Conference games played Friday, Lonoke improve to 6-1 in the conference with a 51-49 win over Dumas and Pine Bluff Dollarway took care of DeWitt 58-47.
Senior Girls
Brinkley 51, Hughes 30
The Brinkley Lady Tigers scored 30 second half points to defeat the Hughes Lady Blue Devils 51-30 Friday night.
Brinkley led 21-19 at the half.
Hughes falls to 0-14 overall and 0-7 in the 6AAA Conference.
In other girls' conference games played Friday, Pine Bluff Dollarway rolled up DeWitt 75-25 and Lonoke outlasted Dumas 63-52.
Junior Boys
Hughes 44, Brinkley 28
Courtley London scored 12 points and David Dowden added 10 Friday to lead the Junior Blue Devils past Brinkley 44-28.
Hughes, 8-1 overall and 3-1 in the league, led 26-14 at the half.
Eric Owens led Brinkley with 12 points.
"Ayo" Ogunsakin finished with eight points for Hughes.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WEST MEMPHIS--The Forrest City Mustangs won at the Devil Dome Friday for the first time since a 1995, the year before Dwight Lofton took over as head coach.
Under Lofton, who is in his fifth season, the Mustangs were 1-7 against the West Memphis Blue Devils headed into Friday's AAAAA-East Conference game -- the only win coming last year at the Barn.
The Mustangs took a giant step toward a postseason berth with a 59-51 win over the Blue Devil. It's a good thing, since Forrest City will host the Class AAAAA state tournament at Mustang Arena.
Forrest City improves to 6-8 overall and 3-2 in the league. The Blue Devils slip to 7-7 overall and 2-3 in the league and need to get busy if they want to be in Forrest City in late February.
In other East boys' games Friday, Little Rock Mills defeated Blytheville 68-59, Jonesboro got past Sylvan Hills 61-56 and Jacksonville needed overtime to hold off Cabot 73-71.
The Mustangs got 18 points apiece from James Johnson and Daffy Norment.
The Blue Devils led 20-10 in the first quarter before they lost all offensive effectiveness.
Senior leading scorer Mike McGee was held to two points through the first three quarters before ending with 11.
"We know McGee is a strong offensive force," said Lofton. "He's like they say on Sports Center. 'You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him.' After a while, I think McGee got to the point where he really wasn't looking for his shot. This game helped to separate the pretenders from the contenders. There is a big river between being 3-2 and 2-3 in this league."
West Memphis led by as much as 26-17 in the second quarter before Forrest City started closing in. The Mustangs trailed 26-20 at halftime.
Forrest City opened the fourth quarter with a 10-4 run, and the Blue Devils never recovered.
"We went back to a man-to-man defense in the second half," Lofton added. "We saw that working, and it looked like they didn't have anybody who wanted to make that penetrating move."
West Memphis head coach Larry Bray agreed with Lofton's assessment.
"We got the ball inside early in the game, and that's what we do best," he said."We got away from that as the game went on, relying on our jump shots."
Junior D.J. Loving added 10 points for West Memphis while Justin Young added nine.
The Blue Devil junior varsity posted a 58-44 victory over the JV Mustangs.
Senior Girls
West Memphis 71, Forrest City 29
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs suffered 34 turnovers Friday against the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils. End of story.
The Lady Blue Devils handed the Lady Mustangs their worst loss of the year Friday night, winning 71-29 to improve to 11-5 overall and 4-1 in the East Conference.
West Memphis point guard Marquita Aldridge didn't score a lot of points but she sliced and diced her way through the Lady Mustangs' defense to set up scoring opportunities.
West Memphis led 19-5 at the end of the first quarter and held a 39-13 advantage at halftime.
Sophomore Jocelyn Love paced the Lady Devils with 12 points while junior Kim Turner added 11 and senior Amber Gean had nine.
Senior post player Leslie Jayroe led Forrest City with six points. Deosha Agnew finished with five points.
Forrest City falls to 5-7 overall and 1-4 in the conference.
"The turnovers killed us," said Lady Mustangs Coach Sue Jayroe, "But West Memphis pressed us until the end, even when I had my junior varsity players in the game."
In other East girls' games played Friday, Blytheville defeated Little Rock Mills 62-47, Jonesboro, playing without senior guard LeAnn Upshaw had little trouble putting away Sylvan Hills 65-29 and Jacksonville won at Cabot 51-48.
The Forrest City teams travel to Jacksonville Tuesday night.