By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City was scheduled to host the West Helena Cougars and Lady Cougars Friday night to start the 2001-02 basketball season.
Trouble was the two schools couldn't agree on where the game would be played.
West Helena wanted the game to be played on their home floor while Forrest City insisted the game would be played at Mustang Arena.
When it became apparently clear that neither school was willing to budge from their adopted stances, they were left with only one alternative -- not to play the game -- against each other any way.
The decision could also affect future Forrest City-West Helena match ups as well.
Forrest City's Mustangs and Lady Mustangs will open the season Friday as scheduled -- at Mustang Arena -- but the opponent will be the Little Rock Parkview Patriots and Lady Patriots.
The girls' game will tip at approximately 6 p.m. and the boys' game will follow.
The Parkview teams are scheduled to open their season Thursday night at Pine Bluff, which mean they will have one game under their belts coming into Friday's game against Forrest City.
It is the season-opener for Dwight Lofton's Forrest City Mustangs and Sue Jayroe's Lady Mustangs. It is also the first time under either coach that Forrest City has faced a Parkview team.
The last time the Parkview teams came to Forrest City, it was as participants in the Class AAAAA State Tournament held in March.
The Patriots defeated Blytheville 52-34 in the first round before losing to Pine Bluff 49-45 in the second round to end the year at 18-6.
The Lady Patriots were eliminated in the first round of the state tournament by Fort Smith Northside, 75-44 and finished the year at 14-9.
The Mustangs also made the state tournament field a year ago, finishing third in the AAAAA-East Conference and losing to Camden-Fairview 73-41 in the first round to end their season at 12-12.
The Lady Mustangs missed the state tournament cut last season, finishing 6-15 for the year.
The Mustangs will be facing a solid Patriot team led by senior guard Antwan Blanchard, who is scheduled to sign a national letter-of-intent Friday afternoon, before making the trip to Forrest City, to play for Southwest Texas State.
The Lady Mustangs will be facing a Lady Patriot team led by junior point guard Renita Dobbins.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Hughes Blue Devils opened their junior high season Monday against West Memphis East.
Thursday night, the Blue Devils will open their senior high basketball season, when they host the Earle Bulldog teams.
The Junior Blue Devils, 0-1 for the year following Monday's 41-34 loss to East, will open the three-game set when they tip at 5 p.m.
Against East, David Dowden led the way with 17 points while Adrian Driver and Justin Allen added four points each.
The junior boys and senior boys are being coached this year by Brad Brannen, who takes over for the departed Wes Swift.
Following Thursday's opener, the Blue Devils are scheduled to play in the Marion Classic and the Rumble on the Ridge Tournament, which begins Thanksgiving Day at Mustang Arena.
Hughes, the defending Class AAA state champion, will open at 3:30 p.m. against Columbus, Miss.
A win would set up a possible second-round game against defending Class AAAA state champs, Osceola.
West Memphis defeated the Osceola boys 100-67 Tuesday night while the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils downed Osceola 86-51.
In other games Thursday, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots and Lady Patriots will travel to Ozark for a doubleheader while the Forrest City Blue Junior Mustangs and Lady Mustangs will open the year at Wynne.
by FRED CONLEY
The National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday named Arkansas as the host for Friday's second-round matchup with Wake Forest.
Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. at Walton Arena. The game will be televised by ESPN.
Arkansas advanced to the NIT second round Monday by defeating Maine 64-47 at home to advance in the preseason tournament.
The Demon Deacons scored with three seconds remaining to hold off North Carolina-Wilmington, 79-78, in Winston-Salem, N.C.
As expected (and certainly to no one's surprise) Pulaski Academy quarterback Thomas Thrash, who sat out of football for three years before returning to the sport as a sophomore receiver, made history last Friday against the Hughes Blue Devils.
It's a good thing P.A. opted to move him from the receiver spot on the field to quarterback.
Thrash, a 5-11, 165-pound senior set a new national record for single-season touchdown passes Friday night in a 63-29 win over Hughes in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs.
Thrash threw six TD passes, raising his season total to 70.
According to the Student Sports National High School Football Record Book, Thrash bettered the former national mark of 66, set by Shiloh Christian quarterback Josh Floyd in 1998.
The national record is the second Thrash has set or tied this season. On Oct. 19, he threw eight touchdown passes in the first half of a 77-20 win over Atkins, matching a record held by current NFL quarterback Chris Redman. Thrash threw for 10 touchdowns in that game, tying him for second on the national single-game chart.
Thrash completed 26 of 31 passes for 302 yards against the Blue Devils, which raised his single-season passing total to 4,534 yards, the 10th-best ever at the prep level.
The national record is 5,526 yards, set by J.R. House of Nitro, W.Va. in 1998.
Thrash broke Floyd's record on a 36-yard scoring pass to Blake Miller with 7:30 left in the second quarter.
He said afterward, the play was basically designed to get a first down, not the touchdown.
After Miller's record-setting, he tossed the ball used on the record-breaking play to his father, Tom, who dropped his son's pass. It was one of the few drops of the night by anyone associated with the Bruins' program.
Louisiana Tech's first home contest of the season could arguably be the best as the sixth-ranked Lady Techsters entertain No. 17 Michigan Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.
The game marks the fourth and final contest of a four-year agreement between the two programs.
The Lady Techsters, ranked sixth coming into the game, lead the series 2-1, but lost last year's game in Ann Arbor 69-66.
Tech and Michigan enter the women's college basketball season as two of the more experienced teams in the country.
Tech returns all five starters from a 31-5 team while Michigan returns four starters from a 19-12 team that finished fifth in the Big 10.
Without a doubt, Michigan will be the best team to come to Ruston this season. On paper it has all the makings of being an instant classic.
Look for former Palestine-Wheatley standout Erica Smith, a true freshman at Tech this season, to be a major contributor Friday night.