By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
DANVILLE -- Every day for the past two years, the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots have been living with a big green monkey clinging to their backs.
That monkey is the Greenland Lady Pirates, who have beaten the Lady Patriots the past two years in the Class AA state championship game.
Seniors Erica Smith, Melanie Baker and Markita Tomlin, the only three P-W players to have played in both the 1999 and 2000 title games, have become well acquainted with that monkey.
Saturday night, before a packed house at Danville High School, the Lady Patriots finally shook off the monkey by defeating Greenland 42-34 in the Class AA state tournament semifinals.
That gives Smith, Baker and Tomlin a third opportunity to capture a state championship.
This time around, the final opponent will be different. Palestine-Wheatley will take the floor Saturday, March 10, at 1:15 p.m. against the Riverside Lady Rebels at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
Riverside (33-6) defeated Shiloh Christian 53-50 Saturday to advance to the title game.
Palestine-Wheatley (34-1) got the win over Greenland Saturday, but the victory didn't come easy.
The Lady Patriots took a 14-point lead into the half and then held off a furious Greenland rally in the third and fourth periods.
"Finally. Finally," Palestine-Wheatley Coach Beverly Bass said. "We wanted some payback. The kids wanted Greenland in the semifinals and I wanted Kingsland. This was tough, but it is sweet."
Smith led the Lady Patriots with 22 points after scoring 31 in a 56-39 win over Marmaduke Friday. Baker and Sheryl Moore both finished with six points and Carlene Gardner had five. Nikki Bass added three points.
Greenland was trying to get back to the state finals for a sixth consecutive time in hopes of winning a third straight state title.
The Lady Patriots got the win by playing tenacious defense and forcing Greenland into committing seven first-half turnovers and several in the closing minute.
The Lady Patriots led 14-7 after the first period but Greenland (30-5) got back-to-back baskets from Kendra Phillips to pull within 17-11. The Lady Patriots put together an 8-0 run to close out the first half and build the 14-point lead.
Enter Greenland junior Lacey Beauchamp who nailed three, three-pointers in the third period to get the Lady Pirates right back into the game.
Greenland also forced five Palestine-Wheatley turnovers which helped fuel a 12-to-2 run, slicing Palestine-Wheatley's lead to 29-23 going into the fourth quarter.
Beauchamp drilled another three in the fourth period and suddenly Greenland was within four points, 30-26 with 6:45 to play.
That was as close as Greenland got.
Beauchamp led Greenland with 14 points while Kendra Phillips added nine and Julie Anderson chipped in six. Beauchamp and Anderson along with Amy Bozarth, Ashley Latta and Rachel McPherson represent the Greenland seniors who have played all three games against P-W.
Palestine-Wheatley stayed with its starting five -- Erica Smith, Nikki Bass, Melanie Baker, Carlene Gardner and Sheryl Moore -- the full 32 minutes.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
SEARCY-- After Saturday's 66-65 win over Ozark in the semifinals of the Class AAA State Tournament at Riverview High School in Searcy, Hughes Coach Wes Swift believes there just may be angels hanging around the basketball court.
Swift's Blue Devils are going to play for the Class AAA State Championship thanks to what he says was a Hughes "guardian angel" that pushed Ozark's last-second, game-winning shot off the side of the rim and to the floor, giving the Blue Devils the semifinal win and propelling them into Friday's championship game.
The Blue Devils (34-1) will play Clarksville in the AAA finals on Friday, 5:15 p.m. at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
Just how close did Ozark's Clayton Julian's shot come from going in at the buzzer. Julian's three-point attempt from the corner hit the side of the rim on his side, bounced across and hit off the other side before falling harmlessly to the floor.
It was a classic battle from start to finish. The game saw 25 lead changes and the largest lead by either team was six points.
"Both teams played so well," Swift said. "It was an all out war. If that shot would have went in, I would have wished them the best of luck, just like they just did us."
Thanks to junior guard Lonnie Smith, who came through when he needed to, including three steals and nine points in the fourth quarter, Hughes was able to stay in the game.
"Lonnie is our money player," Swift said. "When the game is on the line, I want the ball in his hands."
Smith finished with 27 points after scoring 21 in a win over Hamburg on Friday.
The Blue Devils had their problems dealing with Ozark's 6-foot-5 center Cody Tedford.
Tedford scored 20 points, but Hughes was able to stop him with just seconds remaining to preserve the win.
Trailed 66-65 Ozark had the ball out of bounds underneath its own basket with 5.6 seconds left and inbounded the ball to Tedford, but Hughes converged and DeMarcus Burks stripped the ball from Tedford.
The drama wasn't over however as Hughes was called for traveling when they recovered the loose ball and Ozark had one last shot with two seconds left.
Knowing the Hillibillies were going to try to get the ball to Tedford on the inbounds play, the Blue Devils packed the middle blocking Tedford. The inbounds pass from Brad Johnson went to Julian, who had the wide-open shot at the basket.
"They were trying to get the ball to Tedford, and we were fronting him with a 5-11 post man (Chris Crawford)," Swift said. "But Tim Jones did a great job and didn't let Tedford touch the ball on the last possession, and they took the jump shot."
Facing big men is not new for the Blue Devils, who easily dispatched most teams with size-advantage all season, but taking on Tedford was a little different.
"Their guards played well and got the ball to him," Swift said. "That was the difference."
Hughes led 13-11 at the end of the first quarter and 32-31 at the half.
Ozark controlled the third quarter, outscoring the Blue Devils 16-12 to take a 47-44 advantage into the fourth quarter.
The see-saw battled continued throughout the final quarter until Hughes would take the lead for good when Robert Davis hit a three-pointer with 1:55 left to put his team up 64-62.
Ozark sank a free throw to make the score 64-63 just a few seconds later, but Burks sank two crucial free throws with 1:12 left to give his team a 66-63 edge with 1:12 left in the game.
That would be enough as the Blue Devils weathered the dramatic finish for the right to play for the state championship.
Tim Jones added 12 points for Hughes and Burks helped out with 10.
FORREST CITY -- Little Rock Central may not have looked like championship material at times during the Class AAAAA state tournament played at Forrest City, but the bottom line is the Tigers played well enough to reach the overall finals.
Dedrick Poole found his range and scored 20 points to lead No. 2 Central to a 63-44 victory over Pine Bluff (20-9) in Saturday's semifinals.
Central will face conference opponent Little Rock Hall in Saturday's Class AAAAA championship game at Pine Bluff's Convention Center. The two teams split their two games during the regular season.
Hall disposed of Conway Saturday night 54-46 to earn the right to face the Tigers, who are making their first appearance in the final since 1999, the year Joe Johnson led the Tigers to the state title.
Central barely slipped past Jonesboro 42-37 in the first round and then held off El Dorado 52-48 to gget to Saturday's semifinal.
Hall defeated Van Buren 52-44 in the first round and ousted LR Mills 58-53 in overtime to set up the semifinal against Conway.
The Tigers (25-4) jumped out to a 33-12 halftime lead behind Poole's 14 points and never lost control of the game.
Pine Bluff turned over the ball 15 times in the first half and shot 25 percent.
Pine Bluff outscored Central 32-30 in the second half, but it was too late. Senior forward LaRon Bradley led the Zebras with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
LR Hall 54, Conway 46
Before Saturday's semifinal game at the Class AAAAA state tournament, LR Hall and Conway had played twice and each time gone into overtime.
That would not be the case during the third meeting. Hall used a 12-0 run to end the third and start the fourth quarter and eventually notch a 54-46 win.
Hall (22-3) moved on to its first AAAAA finals since 1985.
Conway (20-10) took a 36-33 lead on a three-pointer by Andy Baldwin with 57 seconds remaining in the third quarter and then failed to score until an Allison Boxley three-pointer with 2:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Hall trailed 36-35 going into the fourth quarter.
FORREST CITY -- Fort Smith Southside's Ashley Wald hit the game-winning three-pointer with 4.3 seconds remaining to send the Lady Rebels into the Class AAAAA State Tournament final with a 38-35 victory over Springdale (17-8) at Forrest City;s Mustang Arena.
Southside (19-11) had lost its previous two meetings against Springdale, 55-35 and 61-54.
Southside makes it an all-Fort Smith final.
They will play defending champions Fort Smith Northside in Saturday's championship game at Pine Bluff. Tipoff is set for 8:15 p.m.
Northside handled Fayetteville 50-29 in the late semifinal game Saturday.
It is the third consecutive trip to the AAAAA final for Northside.