By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
In what may go down as one of the most exciting victories ever for Forrest City's basketball program, the Mustangs mounted a furious second-half rally to punch out the Blytheville Chicks 65-61 at Mustang Arena Tuesday.
The victory leaves the Mustangs at 8-9 overall for the year and 5-3 in the AAAAA-East conference, tied with Jonesboro for third.
"Being 5-3 right now looks a whole lot better than being 4-4," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton, who was emotionally drained after the game. "Our guys were down at the half after playing badly in the first half and basically they made up their minds that they weren't going to let Blytheville, or anyone else, come into their house and slap them around."
Indeed, Blytheville, who entered the game as co-leaders in the league with Little Rock Mills -- had their way with the Mustangs in the first half, leading 21-12 after one period and 45-30 at the half.
In short, Blytheville had taken Forrest City completely out of their offensive rhythm in the first half.
The second half, however, belonged to Forrest City.
The Mustangs outscored Blytheville 17-to-7 in the third period and cut the Chicks' lead to five with five minutes left.
They ended the period trailing 57-42.
In the fourth, the Mustangs used an 8-to-1 run to tie the game and then take their first lead at 55-53 with 6:30 to play on a two-point field goal and two free throws from senior guard Brandon Cochran.
Blytheville tied the game at 55-55 and then regained the lead at 57-55 with 3:20 left.
The Chicks would score just four points in the final three minutes while Forrest City got 10 points, including a slam by Daffy Norment with 2.1 seconds to play to seal the win.
Cochran snapped a 61-61 tie when he knifed inside the paint with 23 seconds to play and got the soft bank shot to fall to put the Mustangs in front 63-61.
Blytheville used a time out with 12 seconds left to set up the final game-tying or game-winning shot.
Norment, who started slowly and did not score his first points until the four minute mark of the second period, picked off a Blytheville pass with 5.2 to play and went the distance for the game-ending slam.
Blytheville ended with just 16 second half points after scoring 45 in the first two periods.
The loss leaves the Chicks at 13-6 overall and 6-2 in the conference and in second place behind Mills, a 58-52 winner over Jacksonville.
Norment led the Mustangs with 24 points (15 of that in the second half) while James Johnson and Josh Brown finished with eight points each. Kwantin King and Cochran added six points while Vince Millen added four.
Anthony Handy and Curtis Smith each scored 17 points for Blytheville and Sherrick Sherman added 12.
Senior Girls
Blytheville 62, Forrest City 32
Playing the second half without Kanetra Pendleton, who injured her hand before the half and starter Deosha Agnew, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs managed just 17 points in a 62-32 loss to Blytheville Tuesday.
The Lady Mustangs got nine points each from Caronica Randle and Katrina Floyd and four points each from Leslie Jayroe and Nynechia Fleming.
Wendelyn Jones led Blytheville with 19 points.
Forrest City falls to 5-10 overall and 1-7 in the conference. Blytheville is 12-6 and 4-4.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
DUMAS--The ninth-ranked Hughes Blue Devils found themselves with their backs pinned against the wall Tuesday night at Dumas.
Trailing 28-16 at the half, the Blue Devils scored 54 points in the second half (20 in the third and 34 in the fourth) to notch a 70-61 come-from-behind 6AAA conference win over the Bobcats.
"I'll be real honest with you," said Hughes Coach Wes swift. "Tonight, we were very, very lucky."
The Blue Devils stay unbeaten in the league improving to 9-0 and 23-1 overall. Hughes is ranked second in Class AAA.
Hughes fell behind 15-5 after one period and 28-16 at the half.
"Dumas came out in a 1-3-1 half court zone," Swift said. "Instead of attacking that zone to go inside we settled for taking the outside jump shots which weren't falling for us. We came out in the third period and played more aggressively, going back to what we do best -- taking the ball inside."
That resulted in Hughes outscoring Dumas 20-to-14 in the third to cut the Bobcats' lead to six points, 42-36, to start the fourth period.
Lonnie Smith went to work and scored 15 points in the final eight minutes as Hughes went on a 34-to-19 run to post the win.
Smith finished with 28 points, hitting a pair of threes along the way. Robert Davis finished with 19 points and Paul Doolittle added nine points.
The Blue Devils canned 18-of-21 free throws for the game, with 12 of that total coming in the decisive fourth period.
James Washington, one of Dumas' two 6-4 centers, left the game with a broken arm. Bobcats' center Anthony Gray led Dumas with 17 points.
The Blue Devils will host Turrell Thursday night for a pair of junior high boys' games before travelling to England on Friday.
Junior Boys
Dumas 46, Hughes 28
The Junior Blue Devils, playing without leading scorer, Courtley London, fell to 4-2 in the conference Tuesday losing to Dumas 46-28.
Hughes led 12-6 after one period before Dumas rallied to lead 21-16 at the half and 33-24 after three periods.
"We are probably looking at being the fourth seed into the upcoming 6AAA Junior District at Lonoke," Swift said.
David Dowden led Hughes with nine points while Ayo Ogunsakin finished with eight points and Jerome Thomas with six.
The district begins on Monday, Feb. 12.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CLARENDON--For the second time this season, the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots put 100 points on the board in a win over the Clarendon Lady Lions.
Earlier in the year, at P-W, the Lady Patriots won 100-17. Tuesday at Clarendon, P-W took a 100-26 win, their 23rd victory of the season against one loss.
The Lady Patriots are ranked first in Class AA and second in the state poll.
On Saturdat the Lady Patriots played twice to win the Dual State Tournament at Junction City.
The Palestine-Wheatley starters played only the first and third periods while the junior varsity players took the floor for the second and fourth periods.
Senior forward Erica Smith led P-W with 25 points while Nikki Bass added 15. Carlene Gardner chipped in 14 points.
Melanie Baker, Libby Martin and Nikita Love each finished with eight while Sheryl Moore had six and Beth Varvil had four.
Palestine-Wheatley will host Barton Friday, Feb. 2, for basketball homecoming activities at Patriot Gym.
Senior Boys
Clarendon 61, P-W Patriots 55
The Clarendon Lions halted Palestine-Wheatley's four-game winning streak Tuesday with a 61-55 6AA Conference win.
The Patriots fall to 8-10 overall and 5-4 in the conference.
The Class AAAAA State Tournament is set to begin Tuesday, Feb. 27, at Forrest City's Mustang Arena.
The tournament field will include 32 high school teams -- 16 boys and 16 girls -- from the four, AAAAA conferences.
Each conference will send the top four boys' and girls' teams to the tournament.
The two finalists in each bracket will play for the overall state title at the Pine Bluff Convention Center on March 9-10.
Six games will be played each day of the tournament and the final four games will be played on Saturday, March 3.
Greenbrier will host the Class AAAA state tournament while Riverview will host the AAA state.
Danville will host the AA state tourney and North Arkansas College will host the A state.