By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Junior High basketball teams will go head-to-head tonight at Mustang Arena.
It is the second meeting of the year between the White and Blue teams and the second of existence for both squads.
Last year, the junior high programs (football, track and basketball) were split into two teams each.
Tonight's three-game set begins at 5 p.m., with an eighth-grade game.
Earlier this season, the White Junior Lady Mustangs defeated the Blue Junior Lady Mustangs 38-13 and in six games since that time, have gone 3-3.
Overall the White girls are 9-5 while the Blue girls are still looking for their first win of the year.
The Blue Mustang boys put down the White Mustangs 48-33 in their first meeting this season but have gone just 1-5 in the six games since that win.
by FRED CONLEY
One of the most entertaining high school boys' basketball games I've seen this season went into overtime before being decided.
Last Friday, at Lonoke, the Jackrabbits pulled the 69-67 upset win over defending Class AAA state champion Hughes.
That brought a barrage of plastic soda and water bottles -- empty and nearly full, as well as balls of ice and several other objects -- flying from both the Lonoke side and the Hughes' side of the stands and onto the court. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries that resulted from the classless and childish actions of the fans.
In retrospect, while I am still appalled at this type of behavior, I suppose I'm not really surprised by it either.
In case you haven't been following along, these two teams have developed quite a rivalry since Hughes moved up from Class AA into Class AAA to start the 1998-99 basketball season.
And with the exception of Pine Bluff Dollarway, Hughes and Lonoke have been the two teams to beat in the 6AAA Conference.
That first year, Hughes won both regular season conference games but lost to Lonoke in the semifinals of the regional tournament.
The next season, the two teams met four times -- twice in regular season and twice in postseason -- with Lonoke gaining the upper hand, winning three of the four.
Last year, Hughes took all three games against Lonoke.
Headed into this season, Hughes held a 6-4 advantage over the 'Rabbits in the overall series. Five of those games were decided by 10 points or less.
Until last Friday's two-point win by Lonoke, the closest final margin had been 3, when Lonoke defeated Hughes 52-49 in the district finals during the 99-00 season.
Maybe the 'heated' history between the two teams had something to do with the fact that former Hughes coach Wes Swift is now coaching Lonoke.
Swift led Hughes to the Class AAA state title last March. He resigned and headed to Lonoke, via a stop-over at Shiloh Christian, that lasted all of a month.
Maybe the outburst had something to do with the fans' anger with the three officials calling the game, obviously jumping to the conclusion that the "refs" were calling the game in favor of Lonoke, which evoked the chant of "cheaters" by several of the Hughes' faithful.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
A quick look back at the game stats puts things straight. The final foul count was 19-18 between the two teams. Lonoke shot 26 free throws, Hughes shot 21 free throws. Lonoke made 11, Hughes made 12.
The end-of-game protest might have been spurred by the final call of the night that put Lonoke's Skippy Norman at the foul line with 3.4 seconds left in overtime and the game tied at 67-67.
The call was the right call. Norman was fouled as he went up for a possible game-winning jump shot and a Hughes defender made contact. Norman hit both free throws to win the game.
However, the ref mistakenly whistled the wrong Hughes player. The foul was charged to Hughes' Jay Doolittle, who was at least five feet away from the play.
Right call, wrong number, nothing major, because it was still a foul against Hughes.
It was also just enough to drive the Hughes' fans over the edge.
The two teams will do it again on Feb. 5, at Hughes.
And who knows, maybe once more after that -- in the district tourney -- at Lonoke.
* PREP BASKETBALL
Junior High School
Thursday, January 17
Forrest City Blue vs Forrest City White, 5 p.m.
High School
Friday, January 18
West Memphis at Forrest City, 5 p.m.
Blytheville at LR Mills
Cabot at Jacksonville
Jonesboro at Sylvan Hills
Hughes at Brinkley
PB Dollarway at DeWitt
Lonoke at Dumas
DeValls Bluff at Palestine-Wheatley
Altheimer at Marvell
Barton at Clarendon
Gillett at Elaine