By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JONESBORO -- Hughes outscored Greene County Tech 28-10 in the third quarter behind 17 combined points from Johnny Washington and Jermaine Davis during the stretch to win the seventh-place game 81-56 at the Hurricane Classic Tournament in Jonesboro.
It was the first win of the year for the Blue Devils who lost their first four games.
Washington scored 10 of his 23 points, including a pair of '3's in the quarter, and Davis scored seven of his 22 as Hughes pushed a 38-32 halftime lead to 66-42 entering the fourth quarter.
Hughes (1-4) shot 28-of-53 (53 percent) in the first half, leading 21-9 after one quarter before GCT came back to cut the lead to 38-32 at the half.
Keelan Newsom led the Eagles (2-3) with 10 points while Matthew Davis added nine.
On Friday, the Blue Devils scored just 11 points in the entire second half (nine of that total in the third period) while the Russellville Cyclones were getting everybody into the scoring act.
Russellville shot 74 percent from the floor in the first half and clamped its matchup zone on Hughes in the second to run away with a 72-36 victory Friday in the loser's bracket of the Hurricane Classic.
The Cyclones (1-2) picked up their first victory of the season behind Jordan Richmond's 22 points, including 20 in the first half when Russellville reeled off runs of 10-0 and 7-0 in the second period.
Russellville beat a confused Hughes' man-to-man defense down the court repeatedly for open transition buckets or cut and flashed for open looks, rotating the ball and knocking them down as the Blue Devils got tangled up switching.
"We're just not playing as well as we probably should be," said second-year Hughes Coach Brad Brannon.
Hughes led 16-15 after a three-pointer from Marcus Lay opened the second quarter before the Cyclones scored 10 straight.
The Cyclones led 40-25 at the break.
Hughes shot just 4-of-25 (16 percent) in the second half and finished at 28 percent (13-of-47) for the game.
The Cyclones got scoring from 12 players and valuable minutes off the bench with a main rotation of 10 players.
Also on Friday, Drew Central held off Green County Tech, 67-63 as Jacob Maggard scored 24 of his points in the first half.
Jonesboro made certain of their place in Saturday's final game by opening up an early lead and used solid rebounding to blow away Memphis Trezevant 72-53.
On Saturday, in the tournament finals, the Hurricane lost to Overton, Tenn. 65-63.
Overton defeated Hughes in Thursday's first-round games and then knocked out East Poinsett County 56-43 in semifinal play Friday.
In Overton's victory over EPC, Jonathan Bohanna, 6-6, scored 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Marcus Monk led EPC with 20 points and P.J. Lacy added 11 for the Warriors.
In other action Saturday East Poinsett County beat Trezevant 69-60 in the third-place game and Russellville shut down Drew Central 55-22 for fifth place.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
For the first time in several years, a Forrest City junior high team has won a basketball tournament.
The Forrest City Blue Mustangs got 15 points from Stephon Weaver Saturday night to defeat C.V. White 40-27 in the junior boys' championship game at the Turrell Invitational.
The Blue Mustangs, who travel to West Memphis Wonder tonight, led 16-14 at the half and 27-21 to start the fourth period.
Forrest City outscored C.V. White 13-to-6 in the final frame to seal the win.
Michael Alston added eight points for Forrest City while Marcus Britt had four.
In the girls' junior high championship on Friday, the Forrest City White Lady Mustangs lost to Turrell.
The Forrest City White Mustang teams will host Blytheville tonight at Mustang Arena.
*Also Friday, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots remained unbeaten for the year by holding off Cotton Plant on the road by two points in the final seconds and the P-W Lady Patriots notched a 50-37 win over the Cotton Plant senior girls.
Brittney Flenory led P-W with 20 points while Nikita Love had 12 and Libby Martin tossed in 10 points. Beth Varvil added four.
P-W led 25-19 at the half and by as many as 20 points late in the game.
The Patriots will play Devalls Bluff Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., at the Hazen Tournament while the P-W senior girls will play Des Arc at 7 p.m.
The Patriots won the DeWitt Invitational Saturday night, defeating Stuttgart in the finals.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CABOT -- It was fight to the finish Saturday for the Forrest City Lady Mustangs.
The battle began on I-40 and ended with an overtime loss to Harding Academy in the fifth place game at the Cabot Invitational
The Lady Mustangs bus was tangled in an I-40 traffic jam for almost two hours, caused by an accident, and the team didn't arrive in Cabot until 10:30 a.m. for the game that was scheduled to tip at 10 a.m.
The team suited up on the bus and had just a little more than 10 minutes to warm up once they arrived at Panther Gym.
If the Lady Mustangs thought the traffic snare was rough, Harding Academy's Jennifer Swinney scored 31 points to make things tougher.
Harding tied the game at 58-58 late in the fourth to force overtime which they used to take a 65-64 win over Forrest City.
Caronica Randle led Forrest City with 19 points and seven rebounds while Sequoria Grady had 15 points and seven rebounds and Katrina Floyd and Trina Wynne each finished with 10 points.
"Defensively, we didn't play as well as we should have," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "And when we needed our free throws, they weren't there and that hurt us."
The Lady Mustangs hit 5-of-8 free throws in the overtime period, but the three misses were costly in the one-point loss.
The Lady Mustangs led 33-28 at the half and 46-34 to start the fourth period.
The game was a rematch of the tournament's first day when the Lady Mustangs defeated Harding 67-53.
"It was the kind of game we needed to gain some experience ... we just didn't get the win," Jayroe said.
The Sylvan Hills Lady Bears, Forrest City's next opponent on Monday, Dec. 16, won the tournament, defeating Sheridan 54-40 in Saturday's championship game.
It will be the fifth time since June that Sylvan Hills and Forrest City have met on the court.
In the third-place game, Cabot downed Conway 39-37.
The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs are idle this week before hosting Sylvan Hills on the 16th and then hosting Wynne on Friday, Dec. 20.
The Lady Mustangs will play in the Conway Tournament, beginning Dec. 27.
* PREP BASKETBALL
High School
Friday's Scores
Senior Boys
Palestine-Wheatley defeated Cotton Plant
Senior Girls
Palestine-Wheatley 50, Cotton Plant 37
Junior High Girls
Turrell defeated Forrest City White
Junior High Boys
Cotton Plant defeated Palestine-Wheatley
Saturday's Results
Senior Boys
Palestine-Wheatley defeated Stuttgart
Hughes 81, Greene County Tech 56
Senior Girls
Harding Academy 65, Forrest City 64 OT
Junior High Boys
Forrest City Blue 40, C.V. White 27
Monday, December 9
Forrest City Blue at West Memphis Wonder
Blytheville at Forrest City White
Palestine-Wheatley at DeWitt (JGirls, JBoys)
Tuesday, December 10
Hughes at Marked Tree
At Hazen Tournament
Palestine-Wheatley vs Des Arc, 7 p.m. (SGirls)
Palestine-Wheatley vs DBluff, 8:30 p.m. (SBoys)