By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Following last Friday night's schedule of AAAAA-East basketball games, the conference standings have become a little more defined as the eight boys' and girls' teams head toward the halfway point.
Little Rock Mills has emerged as the sole leader in the boys' side, after handing Blytheville its first league loss Friday. Mills is perfect in the East at 5-0 while the Chicks are 4-1.
Forrest City and Jonesboro are tied for third. Both have identical 3-2 marks.
West Memphis and Jacksonville are next, both sitting at 2-3.
Monday morning, Forrest City basketball coach Dwight Lofton sounded prophetic when he said "there is a big river between being 3-2 in the league and being 2-3 in the league."
Especially, if you are trying to "turn the corner" at 4-3. The "corner" being the halfway point in the 14-game conference schedule.
The Mustangs will reach that point Friday when the pesky Cabot Panthers roll into Mustang Arena.
Before that happens, however, the Mustangs must make a road trip tonight to Jacksonville, a team that started 0-3 but have won their last two games.
Lofton knows all too well about Jacksonville basketball. Before coming to Forrest City, Lofton spent nine years as a junior high coach in the North Little Rock system, which included playing Jacksonville schools on a regular conference basis.
Lofton and Jacksonville Coach Jerry Wilson maintain "a spirited rivalry" on the basketball court.
Headed into tonight's game, Lofton has just one win in four trips to Jacksonville's Devils Den.
He won there last year.
Overall, Lofton is 29-32 in conference play as leader of the Mustangs. He has made postseason twice -- following the 1997-98 season and again last year.
Making postseason this year has been an important goal for the team since practice began but took on an entirely different meaning two weeks ago when the Arkansas Activities Association awarded the Class AAAAA State Tournament to Forrest City.
"It would be tough to host the state tournament and not be one of the teams to make the postseason cut," Lofton said. "We have our work cut out for us. This week, these two games, will go a long way in determining where and how we will finish the year."
Both are "must-win" games for the Mustangs. Two wins and the Mustangs hit the turn at 5-2. A split and they are 4-3 right where Lofton wanted to be.
He doesn't want to think about two losses which would leave his team at 3-4 and facing a long up-hill battle during the second half of the schedule.
Winning tonight is important and very possible.
Refer back to Friday's game at West Memphis where the Mustangs had not won since 1995. They ended that streak with a 59-51 win.
* Sue Jayroe has a different set of problems.
Her Lady Mustangs are 1-4 in the conference and have a lot of catching up to do if they are to make the state tournament cut.
The team's biggest problem is scoring points.
Coming off a 71-29 loss to West Memphis last Friday, the Lady Mustangs hit just 12-of-45 shots taken from the field. They missed 18 shots in the paint.
In three of their last four losses, the Lady Mustangs have been held to under 30 points.
Meanwhile Jacksonville has caught fire at 3-2 and will be a formidable opponent tonight.
The two-game set starts at 6 p.m. at Jacksonville's Devils' Den.
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots have more than one battle on their hands this week.
Besides a 6AA conference game tonight at Gillett and opening play in the Dual State Tournament Wednesday night in Junction City, Lady Patriots' Coach Beverly Bass is just trying to keep her troops healthy.
"We've had about five out with this stomach virus and flu going around," Bass said Tuesday. "The only starter sick is Melanie Baker and she won't play tonight.The rest of the ones sick were nonstarters."
The Lady Patriots will play Huttig Wednesday at the Dual State Tournament. P-W is the No. 1 seed into the 70-year-old event.
Huttig (10-12) defeated Taylor 41-23 on Saturday to advance. P-W and Huttig will tip at 6:45 p.m., Wednesday.
A win will put the Lady Patriots against the Fordyce-El Dorado Westside winner Thursday.
Tonight's game at Gillett tips at 5 p.m., when the Junior Patriots take the court. The senior girls will follow and the P-W Patriots will close out the three-game set at approximately 7:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City White Lady Mustangs slipped to 3-12 Monday losing to Jonesboro MacArthur 44-28 at the Barn.
After a close first period, which ended with MacArthur leading 7-6, the White Lady Mustangs fell behind 20-11 at the half after being outscored 13-to-5 in the second period.
MacArthur held on to a 10-point lead to start the fourth period before Forrest City's Shari Rogers opened with six straight points to trim the Jonesboro cushion.
"The girls played hard tonight," said Forrest City Coach Karen Carrier. "Jonesboro threw some defensive looks at us I'm not sure we were ready for and that made the difference."
Rogers led Forrest City with 15 points while Crystal Summage added seven.
The Forrest City Blue Lady Mustangs (9-7) lost to Blytheville East 52-28 ending a three-game win streak.
Junior Boys
Jonesboro MacArthur 39, FC White Mustangs 20
Jonesboro MacArthur had just enough offense to hold off the Forrest City White Mustangs 39-20 Monday at the Barn.
Lorenzo Spearman led Forrest City with 11 points. Ryan Williams poured in 18 for Jonesboro.
The White Mustangs fall to 3-11 for the year.
MacArthur (6-8, 6-7) led 25-12 at the half and 33-16 going into the fourth quarter.
The Forrest City Blue Mustangs lost to Blytheville East Monday to fall to 2-12 for the year.
The Hughes junior high nonconference games scheduled for tonight at Marianna have been cancelled.
"They (Marianna) called at the start of the season and cancelled the game," said Hughes Coach Wes Swift. "So we have a night off."
Swift, who coaches the junior Blue Devils as well as the 10th-ranked senior boys, will send his troops back into 6AAA Conference play on Friday, when they travel to DeWitt.
In other 6AAA games set for tonight, DeWitt plays at Brinkley, Pine Bluff Dollarway travels to Dumas and Lonoke goes to England.
The Blue Devils lead the 6AAA with a 7-0 league record and are 21-1 overall for the year.
Forrest City's youth baseball and softball registration is now under way and will continue through March 3.
Youth baseball and softball fees are $15 for youths living inside the Forrest City city limits and $25 for those living outside the city limits.
Registration for the city's adult men's and women's softball program is also under way and will run through April 3.
For more information call 633-3667.