By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Wes Swift says Friday's 6AAA Conference game between his Lonoke Jackrabbits and Hughes, his former team, has him feeling just a little weird.
"Because I haven't been in this situation before," Swift said. "Playing a team that I used to coach."
This year's Blue Devil team isn't just a team Swift used to coach. It is basically the same team that won the Class AAA state title in March and finished with a 35-1 record.
It's also the same Hughes team that defeated Lonoke three times a year ago. It is a Hughes team that could very well return to the AAA state title game again this season.
Swift resigned as the Blue Devils' coach in May to take the head coaching position at Shiloh Christian.
He never called a play for the Saints, resigning less than a month after taking the job in favor of the head coaching position at Lonoke, a place Swift said he had always wanted to coach.
He knew of the impending schedule awaiting him at Lonoke -- home-and-home games against his former Blue Devil team -- at least for one year.
Hughes drops down to Class AA in the fall which will eliminate further conference games against Lonoke.
Swift's replacement at Hughes is Brad Brannen, who spent a couple of seasons at Wynne coaching the junior high teams.
Brannen has the Blue Devils at 14-4 overall and 4-0 in the conference. Hughes is ranked second in Class AAA.
Swift's 'Rabbits are 7-9 overall and 2-2 in the league with victories over England and Brinkley and losses to Pine Bluff Dollarway and Dumas.
Swift maintains, however, his team is taking the floor tonight against Hughes with one purpose only in mind -- getting a win.
"We have played against and stayed with two of the top four teams in the league this season in Dumas and Dollarway and now we have to prove we can do the same against Hughes," Swift said. "It comes down to thinking we can win the game and making the plays, especially late in the game. We believe we can get to the district finals and into the regionals."
Swift's 'Rabbits have their work ahead of them.
Already this season, Lonoke has lost three of their top five players to injuries which has forced several younger players to step into a position they haven't been in before.
"We've been through a lot of adversity already this year," Swift said. "but my kids have come a long way and they are getting better."
As for the added individual pressure of playing his old team, Swift downplays the notion.
"No, I don't think there is any more pressure on me as a coach in a game against Hughes as there is against any of the other conference teams," Swift said. "We just want to get a win and I am approaching tonight the same way as any other night."
If a win is in the cards for Lonoke, the team will have to have a big game from senior Skippy Norman, who is averaging close to 23 points a game.
"We are a guard oriented team and our guards will have to handle the pressure that Hughes is so good at dealing," Swift said. "What made Hughes good a year ago was that they found ways to win, even when they were forced to play another team's style. They adapted and that is what we will have to do tonight."
Swift said besides Hughes' guards Robert Davis, Jermaine Davis, Johnny Washington and Jamal Tiggs, the addition of 6-4 junior center Antonio Cotton, a transfer from West Memphis, has given them the ability to play inside.
"The Cotton kid is a leaper and he gets a lot of offensive rebounds," Swift said. "Defensively, he is the shot-blocker Hughes never had while I was there."
The Blue Devils started slowly, losing three of their first five games, before ripping off seven straight wins.
A two-point loss to Earle served as a wakeup call right before the holiday break. The Blue Devils got through the AAA bracket of the Northeast Arkansas Invitational Tournament (NEA) to win the title for the second straight year.
Hughes has scored 80-plus points three times this season and have put up 70 or more points nine times.
Tonight's four-game conference set begins at 4 p.m., when the junior high girls take the floor followed by the junior high boys.
The senior Lady Blue Devils (2-8 and 2-2) will take on the Lady Jackrabbits (10-7, 2-2) at approximately 6 p.m. prior to the senior boys' game.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WEST MEMPHIS -- The Forrest City White Junior Lady Mustangs got back into the win column Thursday night -- barely.
Nicole Parker scored 13 points to help push Forrest City to a 38-37 victory over West Memphis West in AAAAA-East Conference play.
Forrest City improves to 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the league.
Sequoria Grady added eight points, Shari Rogers seven and Viveca Kimble Kimble six for Forrest City.
West led 9-7 after one period, 19-11 at the half and 27-24 after three before Forrest City put together a 14-to-10 scoring effort in the fourth period to win the game.
Heather Gean led West with 18 points.
West won the eighth-grade girls' game 26-14. Shatell McDowell scored four points for Forrest City.
*The White Junior Mustangs lost to West 44-43 on a tip-in of a missed free throw at the buzzer.
Forrest City led by 43-41 with 1.8 seconds left in the game when West's Keland Mills hit the first of a one-and-one free throw chance. Mills missed the second, but West tipped in the rebound for the winning points.
Mills finished with 20 points for West, 6-7 overall and 4-4 in the conference.
*The Forrest City Blue Junior Mustangs lost to West Memphis East 59-42 at Mustang Arena Thursday while the Blue Junior Lady Mustangs lost to the East girls 44-13.
West won the eighth-grade girls' game 28-12.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustangs may have their best chance of the young conference season for a victory tonight when they face Jonesboro on the road.
Both the Mustangs (2-10, 0-2) and the Hurricane (4-10, 0-2) are off to less than stellar season starts.
Jonesboro is coming off one of the worst performances ever under head coach Barry Pruitt Friday, a 71-32 loss to West Memphis.
Likewise, the Mustangs have suffered more lop-sided losses than Tuesday's 56-34 final against Blytheville, but the team's field goal shooting (13-of-52 for 25 percent) may have been the low point for the team so far this season.
"What can you do," said Dwight Lofton after Tuesday's loss. "We missed too many easy, second-chance shots in the paint and everyone knows this season we don't have the clutch perimeter shooter that we have always had in the past, so our outside shooting just isn't there. And they out-rebounded us by at least 20. It was ugly."
Pruitt's Hurricane can relate. Jonesboro shot 31 percent from the floor (10-of-32).
Jonesboro went scoreless for a 5:26 span in the second period and found itself in a deep hole after a 16-0 West Memphis run.
After leading by a single point to start the second period and holding that lead through the early minutes, the Mustangs watched Blytheville sink a couple of threes, hit a two and turn a conventional three-point play to take a lead they wouldn't give up.
West Memphis' first 16-0 run over Jonesboro helped th team to a 35-16 lead at the half. The Blue Devils used another 16-0 run to start the third quarter.
JHS went scoreless for the first 6:50 and found itself down 51-16 before reserve Chase Owens knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:10 left in the quarter.
Pruitt, in his 21st season as Jonesboro's head coach, said the loss was as lopsided as any he could remember for one of his teams.
"What can you say? It was embarrassing, no doubt about it, it was embarrassing," Pruitt said. "We feel like we didn't play like we should. I don't feel like our team is as bad as we appeared to be tonight, but the way we played tonight, we were pretty bad. I think we're better than what we showed."
Like the Mustangs, Jonesboro didn't look bad at all in the opening quarter, trailing just 13-9 on a rebound basket at the buzzer by West Memphis' Desma McCoy.
T Prunty's 15-footer as he was fouled pulled JHS within two a minute into the second quarter, but that was the end of any Hurricane challenge. Jonesboro committed three turnovers, missed three shots from the field and both of its free throws over the next five-plus minutes..
"So tonight against Forrest City, we're just going to see if we can do better on shot selection," Pruitt said.
The three-game tilt begins at 5 p.m., with a JV boys game, followed by the senior girls at approximately 6 p.m.
Palestine-Wheatley will play a pair of 6AA Conference games at Altheimer tonight beginning at 5 p.m.