By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs suffered 32 turnovers Friday in their AAAAA-East Conference game against the Cabot Lady Panthers.
Cabot put 10 different players in the scoring column, led by Michelle Simon's 14 points as the Lady Panthers cruised to a 73-45 win at Mustang Arena.
Chelsi Sheridan added 12 points for Cabot while Laura Semingson had 10. Jamie Coker added nine points and was perfect from the foul line, hitting 5-of-5 free throws. Stephanie Bradley and Alyson Boone had six points while Tara Sterrenberg and Heather Goforth had five points each.
Cabot improves to 5-10 overall and 3-3 in the league while the Lady Mustangs fall to 5-9 overall and 1-6.
Deosha Agnew led Forrest City with 16 points while Kanetra Pendleton had 10 and LaQuisha Cunningham and Caronica Randle finished with eight points each.
Forrest City fell behind 25-16 after one period but battled back to trail 39-30 at the half.
The Lady Mustangs shot 26 percent from the floor and 35 percent from the free throw line.
Forrest City will host Blytheville Tuesday night. Blytheville lost to West Memphis Friday.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustangs are right where they needed to be at the midway point in the AAAAA-East Conference race -- tied for third with Jacksonville and Jonesboro.
Friday, the Mustangs improved to 4-3 in the league by turning back the Cabot Panthers 81-61 at Mustangs Arena.
The second half of the league race begins Tuesday night and the Mustangs have two big home games this week -- Blytheville tomorrow and Sylvan Hills Friday.
Blytheville took the first meeting 55-51. The Chickasaws are 6-1 after defeating West Memphis Friday and are locked in a two-way tie for first place with Little Rock Mills, which lost their first league game of the year 70-53 to Jonesboro.
Jonesboro stands at 4-3 as does Jacksonville a 55-54 winner over Sylvan Hills on Friday.
Cabot stayed close early until the Mustangs began to pull away midway thorough the first period to lead 20-11 to start the second frame.
Senior guard Brandon Cochran came off the bench late in the opening period to hit a three-pointer and then forced a steal and got the layup to spark the Mustangs' run.
Daffy Normant and James Johnson heated up in the second period -- combining for 17 of the Mustangs' 23 points.
Forrest City led 43-25 at the break and increased their cushion to 20 to start the fourth period, leading 65-45.
Cabot's Tommy Williams led all scorers with 27 points. Williams scored 12 of his total in the third period.
Nick Roberts hit a three-pointer in each of the four periods, to finish with 12 points while Josh Nobles had 12. Senior guard Michael Sease added seven points.
The Mustangs placed four in double figures led by Norment's 26 points. Johnson finished with 21, Josh Brown added 12 and Cochran had 10. Vince Millen, starting in place of the injured Kwantin King, finished with three points coupled with a solid defensive effort.
Forrest City improves to 7-9 overall and Cabot falls to 7-10. The two teams each connected for eight, three pointers. Norment had four of the Mustangs' eight treys.
Cabot hit 14 of 25 free throw attempts while the Mustangs canned 15 of 26 from the line.
"Things are getting interesting," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "Two home wins this week will help our cause tremendously."
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JUNCTION CITY -- The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots entered the Dual State Tournament in Junction City looking for a different style of basketball and they found it.
The Lady Patriots, ranked first in Class AA and second overall in the state, upheld their No. 1 seed into the tournament by defeating Strong 61-45 Saturday night in the Dual State championship game.
P-W was clearly not the crowd favorite -- but that was okay with Lady Patriot Coach Beverly Bass.
"I think the tournament atmosphere, the crowds being right on top of us, the gym being packed to the rafters and us not being the crowd favorite will help us down the road as we get into postseason play," said Bass. "We needed that kind of pressure."
Not even mace could deter the Lady Patriots in their quest for the tournament title. In fact, it may have helped.
The only break in the game came with 2:35 left in the third period when the overflow crowd was evacuated when a law enforcement officer, trying to manage the crowd, had his can of mace accidentally discharged.
The game was delayed for about 15 minutes as most of the crowd left the gym and the teams were sent to the lockerrooms.
"That gave us time to catch our breath," Bass said. "We were getting a little tired at that point because Strong was playing a very physical game."
Indeed, Strong hit Palestine-Wheatley with everything it had including elbows, knees, shoulders and hips.
At times, it appeared to be more of an officiated street fight than a basketball game.
The final margin was 16 points but the Lady Bulldogs were within five points midway in the fourth quarter before Palestine-Wheatley finished with a 16-5 run.
Strong had the lead in the third quarter before foul trouble put two of their starters on the bench.
"It was a physical game, but it was different on our part," Bass said. "We try to play good sound fundamental basketball. It was a street fight on their part."
The game resumed after the mace incident with the Lady Patriots holding a 38-32 lead.
P-W carried a 43-34 lead into the final period but Strong opened the fourth quarter with five straight points, cutting the lead to 43-39 with 5:23 left in the game.
Erica Smith and Carlene Gardner helped push the Lady Patriot lead to 51-40 with 2:37 remaining.
Strong got as close as 53-43 with 1:09 left but Smith and Nikki Bass each had two steals and layups and two free throws apiece in the final moments for the final margin.
The Lady Patriots, who eliminated Strong in the first round of the Class AA state tournament two years ago, went to its fullcourt press midway in the first quarter.
Strong led 9-7 before Bass came off a screen and drained a jumper. Smith had a steal and fed Bass again for a layup and a foul. Her three-point play gave the Lady Patriots a 12-9 lead. Strong answered with three free throws to tie the game early in the second.
The teams exchanged baskets and Amelia Baker's three -point basket with 1:27 left in the half cut Palestine-Wheatley's lead to 24-23.
Smith turned a three-point play and the Lady Patriots led 27-26 at the half.
Shekmeca Green opened the second half with back-to-back post-up buckets, giving Strong a 30-27 lead.
It was the first time the Lady Patriots had trailed in the second half at Junction City. Smith answered with a three-pointer but Green was equal to the task and scored inside.
Smith went inside for a layup before senior forward Melanie Baker hit a jumper and the Lady Patriots went on to open up a 38-32 lead on two more shots by Smith.
Smith, a Louisiana Tech signee, scored 34 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had six steals. She hit 7-of-8 free throws. Bass scored 11 points while Baker added eight with six boards. Senior guard Carlene Gardner had four points.
Smith, Bass and Baker were all named to the All-Dual State Tournament Team.
Green led the Lady Bulldogs with 14 points and eight rebounds. Sherika Rowland and Jamye Baker each scored eight while Amelia Baker adding seven.
The Lady Patriots improve to 22-1 on the year while Strong falls to 19-4.
Semifinal Game
P-W Lady Patriots 59, Union Lady Cyclones 39
To get to the Dual State Tournament title game, Palestine-Wheatley had to get past Union Saturday morning in the semifinal action.
The Lady Patriots advanced to the championship game with a 59-39 victory, but for the first time in the tournament, they had to work 32 minutes for it.
The Lady Patriots improved to 21-1 on the season while the Lady Cyclones fell to 20-9.
Palestine-Wheatley outscored its first two opponents -- Huttig and Fordyce -- by a combined 139-56.
Their closest game was 41 points and in the first half, the Lady Patriots had outscored their opponents 83-14.
Palestine-Wheatley went on a 17-2 run during which Smith had nine points in that run and Sheryl Moore had four points and four offensive rebounds during the stretch, which pushed their lead to 26-9 with 6:38 left in the half.
They pushed that to 38-16 at the break.
Smith finished with 35 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.
Davis led Union with 12 points while Gilmore scored 12 with seven rebounds.
Bass added 15 for P-W while Baker grabbed nine rebounds and Moore had seven boards.
"Sheryl played very well for us defensively," said P-W Coach Beverly Bass. "She got us some key rebounds when we needed them."
The Lady Patriots will play Clarendon Tuesday in 6AA Conference play.
Palestine-Wheatley 69, Marvell Lady Mustangs 38
The P-W JV girls got 15 points from Brittany Flemory and 13 points from Libby Martin Friday in a 69-38 win over Marvell. Nikita Love added 11 while Tamnmy Griffin and Kristin Wilburn had nine points each and Beth Varvil and Makita Tomlin each had six.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Hughes Blue Devils defeated DeWitt Friday night 51-25 in 6AAA Conference action to improve to 22-1 for the year and 8-0 in the league.
The win also boosted the Blue Devils up one notch in the state's overall standings -- from 10th to ninth.
Hughes is ranked second in Class AAA behind Calrksville.
Lonnie Smith led the Blue Devils with 17 points.
Friday's win over DeWitt was the 14th straight win for the Blue Devils.
In other 6AAA games Friday, Pine Bluff Dollarway defeated England 89-20.
Thursday night, Lonoke defeated Brinkley 68-50 to stay in second place in the league standings behind Hughes.
The Blue Devils travel to Dumas Tuesday night and will make the trip to England on Friday.
In other boys' action Friday night, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots are back in the chase for the 6AA Conference title.
Leroy Bell scored 31 points and Michael Barnes added 20 points Friday to lead the Patriots past Marvell 81-68.
The Patriots improve to 8-9 overall for the year and stand at 5-3 in the conference. They have won their last four games.
The Patriots will play Clarendon Tuesday night. The Lions are 6-3 in the league.
"We're still in the hunt," said P-W Coach Terry Clardy. "The kids all believe they have a chance to win the conference. If we can continue to pull it together over the next few games, we can do that."