By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs were in "the zone" Monday against Sylvan Hills.
Taking advantage of a Sylvan Hills team which came to town minus their junior play-maker guard and leading scorer Courtenay Brown, the Lady Mustangs used a tough zone defense to shake up and confuse the Lady Bears, trapping the visitors for a 70-52 win at Mustang Arena.
While Brown was home battling the flu, Forrest City's play-maker, senior forward Caronica Randle, was feeling just fine and showed it by pouring in 26 points in the win over the Lady Bears, who slip to 6-5 for the year.
Ten of Randle's 26 points came in the fourth period. She also had six rebounds and blocked two shots -- one in each half.
"I was pleased with the game for the most part," said Forrest City coach Sue Jayroe. "I was very pleased with the zone defense we played and the trapping we used to force them into several first half turnovers. I wasn't pleased when we went to a man defense in the third period. It didn't work and we got into trouble and had to abandon it."Leading 37-24 at the half, the Lady Mustangs were leading 46-31 in the third when they switched to a man. Immediately, Sylvan Hills put together a 9-0 run to get within six points at 46-40 with a minute left in the third.
The Lady Mustangs went back to the zone for the rest of the game.
The Lady Mustangs, 4-4, led by just eight points to open the fourth period and quickly pushed that lead to 10, 56-46 after a Randle steal and layup with under six minutes to play.
After two free throws by Pam Burnett to get Sylvan Hills back within eight points, the Lady Mustangs used a 12-0 run to push their lead to 20 points, 68-48 with two minutes to play.
The Lady Mustangs didn't get to the foul line as much as they might have liked, but in the nine chances they were given, they dropped home six free throws.
The Lady Mustangs built a 16-11 lead after one period helped by eight Sylvan Hills turnovers. With 3:13 left in the first half, the Lady Mustangs had extended their lead to 30-16 and took the 37-24 lead into the intermission.
Burnett and Ashley Griffin picked up the slack created by Brown's absence nicely for the Lady Bears, scoring 16 points each.
Matealia Jordan and Danielle Birdsong finished with six points each.
The Lady Bears hit nine of 15 free throws.
Katrina Floyd enjoyed what may have been her best offensive game of the season for Forrest City, scoring 15 points while Katrina Pendleton added 10 points. Trinia Wynne finished with seven points and Sequoria Grady had six points and five rebounds.
"I was very pleased with Grady's play," Jayroe said. "She's just a sophomore but she is beginning to season in her role coming off the bench. She is giving us some quality minutes."
The two teams were playing for the fifth time since last summer's team camp and also for the final time this season.
No longer are the two schools in the same conference or even the same classification for that matter and Monday's game was the second of the regular season "home-and-home" scheduled series.
Forrest City will host Wynne Friday night at Mustang Arena.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
What looked like the makings of a Forrest City victory Monday against the Sylvan Hills Bears turned on one play when one Mustang player didn't.
Senior guard Kerry Evans was hit from behind on a long inbounds, baseball pass from sophomore Nick Grady late in the game which resulted in a crucual Forrest City turnover -- which resulted in a tough 41-40 Mustang home loss.
The play wasn't Evans' fault. He was unaware that the pass was headed his direction, until it was too late.
"It was a bad decision by Grady," said Forrest City coach Dwight Lofton. "At that point in the game, there was no need for that kind of pass. There was another player closer to Nick who could have taken the inbounds play."
On the play, Evans was already across midcourt on his way to setting up for the Mustangs' offensive possession. Grady's heave hit Evans in back of his left shoulder and caromed out of bounds in front of the scorers table just as Evans glanced over his shoulder. Evans tried to react to the pass but couldn't do so in time.
The play came with 1:35 left in the game and Forrest City clinging to a 38-36 lead over the visiting Sylvan Hills Bears.
Matters got even worse on the Sylvan Hills inbounds play when Forrest City junior Lorenzo Spearman, who had been helping to clog the middle against the Sylvan Hills, fouled out.
And even though the Bears missed seven straight free throws over the final 40 seconds, Sylvan Hills held on to escape with the win.
The Mustangs slip to 1-7 for the year.
After the errant pass, Sylvan Hills tied the game at 38-38 on two free throws and had a chance to take the lead when Emmett West missed the front half of a one-and-one. Hezekiah Smith grabbed the rebound for the Bears and dished to West who was fouled by Anthony Bean. This time West missed both free throws, but again got the rebound when Sam Givens came down with the loose ball and was fouled. Givens missed both chances from the foul line with 26 seconds to play.
Finally, Derrick Grant got loose along the baseline for a layup to put the Bears in front 40-38.
Grady had a chance to tie the game but missed a layup and Bean, who was trailing the play missed the follow shot with 12 seconds left.
Smith missed two free throws for the Bears while Deangelo Braddock misfired on a one-and-one attempt for the Mustangs with seven seconds remaining.
Givens finally dropped in the second of two free throw chances with five seconds left to put the Sylvan Hills lead at three, 41-38, good enough to offset Evans' layup at the buzzer.
Sylvan Hills led 11-5 after one period and 19-12 at the half.
Forrest City, making some needed adjustments at the half, came out and tied the game at 20-20 in the third and took their first lead at 22-20 with 3:50 to play. The Mustangs led by four, 28-24 to start the final quarter.
A three by Grant got the Bears within one at 28-27 but Braddock's putback and Evans steal and pass to Bean for the layup had Forrest City back in front 32-27.
Evans' second layup with five minutes left gave Forrest City a 34-31 lead and Bean's two free throws made it 36-33.
Then the pass.
"I've been in too many game situations like that and I knew that play was the turning point in the game as soon as it happened," said Forrest City coach Dwight Lofton. "I thought to myself, 'that's the ball game.'"
Evans led Forrest City with 11 points while Spearman had Grant and Givens each had 10 points for the Bears 10 before fouling out. Bean finished with eight and Grady had six.
From the foul line, the Mustangs were seven of 13.
The Bears hit 11 of 24 free throws, but missed eight in the fourth period alone.
Forrest City will host Wynne Friday at Mustang Arena.