By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs, teetering on the brink of elimination from postseason play, will host Little Rock Mills tonight at Mustangs Arena in a makeup game from last week.
The Lady Mustangs, 3-6 in the AAAAA-East conference following Friday night's 60-42 loss to Jonesboro, have five games left to play and can ill-afford another league loss.
The bad news is three of the remaining five are against No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 in the girls' standings -- West Memphis, Jacksonville and Cabot.
Forrest City lost to each of the three in the first meeting of the conference season.
West Memphis and Jacksonville will be road trips while Cabot will be the final home game for the Lady Mustangs.
But first things first.
The Lady Mustangs do have a shot at improving the won-lost record tonight when the Mills Lady Comets roll into Mustang Arena.
The Lady Comets are 0-9 in the league.
Tonight is the first meeting between Forrest City and Mills this season due to a quirk in the scheduling early on and then to last Tuesday's snowfall that cancelled the playing date.
After tonight's meeting, the two teams will play again on Feb. 21 to close out the regular season.
Against Jonesboro, the Lady Mustangs suffered 12 turnovers in the first half and trailed 30-17 at halftime.
Meanwhile, Jonesboro pounded the ball inside .
Fueled by senior Deosha Agnew, the Lady Mustangs made a run in the third period, slicing Jonesboro's lead to just eight points to begin the fourth period.
The Lady Hurricane regrouped in the final eight minutes to outscore Forrest City 19-to-9 to post the win.
"We took a hit Friday but we still have a chance to make the postseason cut," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "It's an outside shot, but it's still a shot."
Agnew led Forrest City with 20 points before fouling out midway through the fourth period. Erica Haggans was the only other Lady Mustang in double figures with 10.
Sara Lehman led Jonesboro with 14 points while Lydia Nelson had 11 and Rachel Simmons added 12.
The Jonesboro win leaves the Lady Hurricane tied for second with Jacksonville
Meanwhile, the Mustangs are still searching for a conference win.
For a half Friday night against Jonesboro, the Mustangs were in the game.
In fact, the Mustangs got within four points at 33-29 in the third period before Jonesboro went on a perimeter oriented 17-to-4 run to end the third period to lead 50-33 headed into the final eight minutes.
Lorenzo Spearman and Kerry Evans, back in the starting line up, after suffering an injury three weeks ago, combined for a 7-0 Mustang run, cutting Jonesboro's lead from 33-22 to 33-29 with 5:28 left in the third.
Both teams matched fourth period points -- 18 for each team -- which left the Hurricane with a 68-51 win.
Matt Byrd led Jonesboro with 20 points while Ervin Jones finished with 17 and Kyle Gartman added 14.
Spearman led the Mustangs with 11 points while Evans added 10 and John Foreman finished with nine.
The Mustangs fall to 0-9 in the league while Jonesboro slips into fourth place at 5-4.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
LONOKE --The Hughes Junior Blue Devils will get a chance to repeat as 6AAA District Tournament champions tonight when they face Lonoke in the championship game at 7:15 at Lonoke.
The Junior Blue Devils advanced to tonight's finals by defeating Pine Bluff Dollarway 53-40 Saturday night.
David Dowden led Hughes with 20 points while Marcus Washington added 17, Melvin Williams eight and Adrian Driver seven.
The Junior Blue Devils led 11-8 after one period and 26-18 at the half.
Dowden took over in the third period, scoring scoring nine of his 20 points, to put the Junior Blue Devils up by 10 to start the fourth period.
Hughes kept the lead at double digits for most of the final period.
Jonathan Morre led Dollarway with 11 points while Bobby Miller added nine and Joseph Byrd added eight.
In Saturday's other semifinal, Lonoke defeated Dumas 43-26 to advance to tonight's finals.
In the junior girls' side of the district, Lonoke will face Dumas tonight for the title at 6 p.m.
Dumas defeated England 55-23 Saturday and Lonoke defeated Pine Bluff Dollarway.
William Shorter scored 30 points to lead Pine Bluff Dollarway past the Hughes Blue Devils 77-61 Friday night in the regular-season conference finale at Dollarway.
Dollarway finishes the year at 16-5 overall and 11-1 in the 6AAA. The Cardinals will be the No. 1 seed into the 6AAA District Tournament that begins Tuesday at Lonoke.
Hughes, the only conference team to defeat Dollarway this season, ends the regular season at 18-8 overall and 8-4 in the league.
The Blue Devils drew the No. 4 seed into the district tournament and will play No. 5 seeded Brinkley, Wednesday, at 5 p.m.
Brandon Robinson added 15 points for Dollarway while Brandon Mays scored 13.
Jermaine Davis scored 18 points for Hughes, including four, three-pointers while Chris Crawford finished with nine and Robert Davis and Johnny Washington added six points each.
Dollarway led 25-16 after one period and 40-35 at the half.
Kim Matthews scored 13 points and Bridgett Tate added 12 to lead the Pine Bluff Dollarway Lady Cardinals past Hughes 63-39 in Friday's regular-season finale.
Dollarway finishes at 17-7 overall and 11-1 in the 6AAA while Hughes finishes 4-14 and 4-8 in the league.
Valraneeka Brown led Hughes with 15 points.
The Lady Blue Devils finished fifth in the league and will play DeWitt Tuesday at 8 p.m., in the 6AAA District Tournament at Lonoke.
Dollarway won the conference title and awaits the DeWitt-Hughes winner on Thursday.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Each of the four Palestine-Wheatley basketball teams finished either first or second headed into the 6AA District Tournament, which starts today at Barton.
The P-W Junior Lady Patriots are the No. 2 seed into the district and will face Clarendon on Tuesday.
The Junior Patriots won the league title and received a bye to the semifinals on Thursday.
The P-W Lady Patriots shared the regular-season conference title with Barton and for the first time since joining the 6AA Conference, will not be the top-seeded team into the district.
The Lady Patriots earned the No. 2 seed and drew a bye to the semifinal game. Barton received a bye to the tournament finals.
And the P-W Patriots earned the No. 2 seed into the district bracket, finishing second in the conference behind league champs Altheimer.
Both senior high teams open play on Wednesday.
All four Forrest City Junior High basketball teams will be in action tonight as the AAAAA-East District Tournament gets underway at West Memphis.
The Forrest City White Lady Mustangs play WM West at 4 p.m., at WM High School while the Blue Junior Lady Mustangs play WM East at 7 p.m.
The Blue Mustangs face WM Wonder at 5:30 p.m., at West Junior High while the White Junior Mustangs face Jonesboro MacArthur at 8:30 p.m., at the high school.
* PREP BASKETBALL
Boys' AAAAA-East
Conf. O/all
Little Rock Mills 8-1 19-3
West Memphis 9-2 15-7
Blytheville 6-3 12-6
Jonesboro 5-4 9-12
Sylvan Hills 4-5 10-8
Jacksonville 4-5 7-12
Cabot 2-9 5-17
Forrest City 0-9 2-17
Girls' AAAAA-East
Conf. O/all
West Memphis 10-1 21-2
Jacksonville 7-2 16-4
Jonesboro 7-2 18-4
Cabot 6-5 13-11
Forrest City 3-6 7-12
Sylvan Hills 3-6 10-7
Blytheville 2-7 10-11
Little Rock Mills 0-9 0-0
Boys' 6AAA Conference (Final)
Conf.
PB Dollarway 11-1
Dumas 9-3
Lonoke 8-4
Hughes 8-4
Brinkley 4-8
England 2-10
DeWitt 0-12
(Lonoke finished third by defeating Hughes twice in head-to-head competition)
Girls' 6AAA Conference (Final)
Conf.
PB Dollarway 11-1
Dumas 10-2
Lonoke 8-4
DeWitt 7-5
Hughes 4-8
Brinkley 2-10
England 0-12
Junior High School
AAAAA-East District Tournament
Monday, February 11
Junior Girls at WM High School
WMemphis West vs FCity White, 4 p.m.
WMemphis East vs FCity Blue, 7 p.m.
Junior Girls at West Memphis West
JBoro Annie Camp vs Blytheville, 4 p.m.
JB MacArthur vs WMemphis Wonder, 7 p.m.
Junior Boys at WM High School
WMemphis West vs WMemphis East, 5:30 p.m.
JB MacArthur vs FCity White, 8:30 p.m.
Junior Boys at West Memphis West
WMemphis Wonder vs FCity Blue, 5:30 p.m.
Blytheville vs JB Annie Camp, 8:30 p.m.