By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Following Monday's minor bump in the road against West Memphis Wonder, the Forrest City Blue Junior Mustangs needed only one half to secure a win over their counterparts -- Forrest City White Thursday night.
Monday's loss to Wonder was the Blue teams first loss of the year.
Playing at Mustang Arena Thursday, the Blue and White teams went head-to-head.
Led by Marcus Britt's 14 points, the Blue Mustangs stormed to a 16-2 lead after one period which would lead to a 57-22 win over the White Mustangs.
Blue Coach Jimmy Williams played his subs the entire second half after leading 37-8 at the break.
Michael Alston added 10 points for the Blue team while Stephon Weaver had just four points.
Weaver sat out the entire second half while the Blue subs outscored the White team 20-to-14.
Preston Echols finished with four points but was in double digits in rebounding.
"Echols isn't going to score a lot of points," Williams said, "But he is tough on the boards."
Travis Holloway and William Mitchell led the White Mustangs with six points each.
Both teams are idle until after the first of the year when the teams resume play on Jan. 6.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
HAZEN -- DeVille Pickett tossed in 17 points Thursday to lead the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots to their eighth straight win and a 48-41 win over C.V. White in the Hazen Invitational semifinals.
The Patriots (8-0) will play the tournament's host team Hazen, Saturday at 8:30 p.m., in the championship game.
Brandon Roberts added eight points for P-W while Vince Jones and Joe Hooker each finished with six points.
Hazen head coach Joe Besancon probably would rather be playing anyone but P-W.
"Palestine-Wheatley has a lot of fire power and they are very quick," Besancon said. "And right now, I've got some players who have that virus bug going around and aren't full strength."
Besancon's Hornets had enough in their tanks to defeat Carlisle 58-52 Thursday in the other boys' semifinal.
The Patriots led 11-4 after one period but by only one over C.V. White at the half, 23-22.
It was still a one-point advantage for the Patriots to start the fourth period, leading 31-30, before P-W used a 17-to-11 fourth period to nail down the victory.
A win over Hazen in Saturday's finals would give the Patriots their second tournament championship of the season.
P-W defeated Stuttgart last Saturday to win the DeWitt Invitational.
P-W will open play at the Arkansas Tech tournament on Dec. 26.
Lady Bison 53, Lady Patriots 32
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots played Carlisle even during the second half but they were playing from a first-half hole they had dug themselves into.
The end result, a 53-32 Carlisle win, left the Lady Patriots playing in Saturday's consolation game rather than the championship game at the Hazen Invitational Tournament.
"We didn't lose to a Mickey Mouse team," P-W coach Lanny Allen said. "Carlisle is a solid team and they played very well. On the other hand, we didn't play hard in the first half and we got behind and had to try to play catch up. By the time the girls decided to start playing in the second half, we were already in a deep hole."
Carlisle, who starts four juniors and one senior, placed four in double figures. Palestine-Wheatley, which starts five seniors, had one in double figures -- Brittney Flenory, who finished with 17 points.
LaRhonda Bender and Nikita Love added six points each.
Carlisle will play McCrory, an overtime winner over Hazen Thursday night, in Saturday's 7 p.m. final. P-W will play Hazen in the consolation game at 4 p.m.
The Lady Patriots will open play at the Arkansas Tech tournament on Thursday, Dec. 26, when they take on Dover at 3 p.m.
The Lady Patriots played Dover at last summer's team camp, losing by just three points.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Matisha Dobbins scored 10 points to help lead the Forrest City Blue Lady Mustangs to a 23-18 win over the White team in junior high action at Mustang Arena Thursday.
The Blue Lady Mustangs led 6-4 after one period but fell behind at the half 14-6 after the White girls used a 10-0 run in the second period to take the lead.
The Blue girls turned it around in the fourth period with their own 10-to-0 run to get the win.
Fareeda Washington added eight points for the Blue girls.
Layne McGuirt led the White Lady Mustangs with 10 points.
In the eighth-grade girls game, the White Lady Mustangs scored four points in overtime to take a 19-15 win.
Both teams ended regulation ended in a 15-15 tie.
Shalonda Barten scored eight points in the contest.
The White team led 4-0 after one period.
Annie Camp 36,
WM East 21
Annie Camp outscored West Memphis East 18-2 in the fourth quarter and Jermece Smith scored 18 points to lead the Lady Whirlwinds to a 36-21 junior girls' basketball victory Thursday at Whirlwind Gym.
Talya Haskins added 12 points and seven rebounds for Annie Camp.
MacArthur 33, W.M. West 32
MacArthur outscored West Memphis West 9-8 in the final quarter to pull out a 33-32 victory in junior girls' basketball Thursday at MacArthur.
Tarzanna Thompson scored 12 points and Anna Kaloghirou added 10 for MacArthur (3-2, 1-1 AAAAA-East).
Annie Camp 46,
W.M. East 25
Ivory Richardson scored 13 points and Annie Camp shook off a slow start to outscore West Memphis East 23-4 over the second and third quarters in a 46-25 junior boys' basketball victory Thursday at Whirlwind Gym.
Murray Watts added eight points for Annie Camp (4-3, 2-1 AAAAA-East), which trailed 14-12 after one quarter.
W.M. West 43,
JBoro MacArthur 31
Perry Simmons scored 22 points as West Memphis West outlasted MacArthur 43-31 Thursday in junior boys' basketball at Cyclone Gym.
Matt Garner led MacArthur (4-1, 1-1 AAAAA-East) with 19 points.
The Forrest City Ponys, one of the four East Arkansas Youth Football Association teams, recently completed a 5-3 regular season and capped their year with a 14-12 win over the Forrest City Steelers in the annual Super Bowl game played on Nov. 16. The Ponys were coached by Jackie Cunningham, Antonio Devore and Sam Ware.
Osceola won't have the chance at a Northeast Arkansas Invitational tournament three-peat.
The two-time defending Class AAAA state champion and AAAA-AAAAA division champion of the NEA has been forced to withdraw from the tournament, because the Seminoles have already participated in their allotted three tournaments, Osceola coach Frank Gathen said.
The Seminoles, 8-0, also won the Blytheville Classic earlier this season.
The flap came about because Gathen inserted his junior varsity in his own Osceola Classic last weekend, along with his varsity team.
The Seminole JV squad replaced Rivercrest, which pulled out because of its participation in the high school football playoffs.
Gathen said he had no idea that putting his junior varsity in the tournament would count toward the Seminoles' three varsity tournaments limit for the season.
AAA rules allow football- playing schools to schedule 20 games and two tournaments or 18 games and three tournaments.
Osceola was seeded first in the AAA-AAAA-AAAAA division, but now East Poinsett County now becomes the top seed.
This year's 56th annual boys' and 26th annual girls' tournaments begin Thursday afternoon, Dec. 19 at 3 p.m., at the Convocation Center.
Teams have been forced to forfeit NEA titles on three different occasions in the tournament's 56-year history because teams used an ineligible player.
Poughkeepsie forfeited the B division title in the 1953-54 tournament.
In recent years, Nettleton forfeited the AA division title in the 1991-92 tournament, while Jonesboro forfeited the AAAA-AAAAA division title in the 1983 tournament, which was awarded to runnerup Forrest City.