By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Jacksonville's Nick Smith is back, with an exclamation point. And just in time for tonight's AAAAA-East Conference game at Forrest City.
Smith, who sustained an injury two weeks ago against Mills, poured in a season high 31 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Red Devils to a 62-52 victory last Friday against Cabot.
It was Jacksonville's first conference victory of the year.
Forrest City is still in search of their first conference win.
The Mustangs are coming off a physical 50-45 loss to West Memphis on Friday.
Tonight's game against Jacksonville doesn't bear any resemblance to West Memphis at all.
"West Memphis is big and powerful on the floor," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "Jacksonville will use its speed. That is the difference."
Certainly, Jacksonville's Smith is probably one of the quickest in the conference and when he drives the lane, it usually results in Red Devil points.
He showed that speed early against Cabot just seconds into the game when he outran everyone the length of the floor on an inbounds pass and went up for a thunderous dunk.
A few minutes later, Smith went skyward for an alley-oop dunk off a perfectly placed pass from teammate Xanus Robinson. And keep in mind that Red Devil Coach Jerry Wilson says Smith is not back to being 100 percent.
Lofton knows it will take an outstanding defensive effort to slow Smith.
"You won't stop him completely, but we can try and slow him down," Lofton added.
Jacksonville is 4-10 and 1-3 in the league while Cabot, Forrest City's next opponent on Friday, falls to 3-11 and 1-4. The Mustangs are 2-12 and 0-4.
At this point in the season it is, according to Lofton, becoming a matter of survival.
"We are just trying to outlast, outwit and outplay," Lofton said. "I hope our guys grew from Friday's game against West Memphis. We didn't get the win, but they played hard and they played with a lot of energy. They will need that energy level again tonight against Jacksonville."
Lofton says one of the big keys is for his Mustangs to "make the plays themselves and not wait for another player to do something."
The Mustangs will be without senior guard Kerry Evans until next week. Evans suffered an ankle injury against West Memphis. But the team will welcome back Anthony Bean tonight, who has been out with an ankle injury.
Bean practiced Monday with the team.
In the girls' game, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs will be looking to get back into the conference win column after suffering two straight losses to Jonesboro and West Memphis.
West Memphis got scoring from 10 different Lady Blue Devil players and out-rebounded the Lady Mustangs to take a 69-48 win last Friday.
The Lady Mustangs played with and stayed with the West Memphis girls until the half. The third period proved to be decisive when the Lady Mustangs had to take the floor without starting junior forward and scoring leader, Caronica Randle, who was sitting with four personal fouls.
Senior Deosha Agnew put the game on her shoulders and did all she could do but her effort fell short.
"I was really proud of Deosha," Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe said. "She took control on the floor and tried to keep us in the game. We are definitely not the same team without Randle on the floor."
Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Lady Red Devils were out-lasting a much-improved Cabot team to win 60-54.
Cabot started the season playing well and ran out to a 7-2 record. Since that fast start, Cabot has lost six of its last eight and now sits 9-9 overall and 1-4 in AAAAA-East play. Those three conference losses were against the four teams that now sit atop the league and two were to top-five ranked Jonesboro and West Memphis.
Forrest City goes to Cabot Friday to play the Lady Panthers for the second time this season. The two teams met early in the year in the first round of the Cabot Invitational with the Lady Panthers taking a 71-56 victory.
But for tonight, it's Jacksonville that has Jayroe's undivided attention.
Against Cabot, the Lady Devils scored the first 11 points of the second period. Cabot rallied and went on a Cabot went on a 20-to-4 scoring run.
Jacksonville used its superior speed and depth in the fourth period to grab the win.
The Lady Red Devils enter tonight's game with sole possession of third place in the league standings.
The Lady Mustangs dropped from third to fifth, after their loss to West Memphis and coupled with the Sylvan Hills game against Jonesboro being postponed. The Lady Bears are in fourth place in the standings.
*Meanwhile, the Hughes senior high teams have the night off.
The Blue Devils, 16-5 overall and 6-1 in the 6AAA Conference, will host DeWitt Friday night as conference play winds into the back side of the schedule.
Hughes is on a roll, having won 14 of the last 16, which included an 83-35 win over the Dragons.
The Lady Blue Devils have struggled losing their last three games.
The Hughes junior high teams travel to West Memphis East tonight.
*Over at Palestine-Wheatley, the Patriots and Lady Patriots get back into the 6AA Conference wars tonight by hosting Gillett in a three-game set that tips at 5 p.m.
P-W will host Gillett tonight at Patriot Gym in a 6AA Conference game. Both the Patriots and Lady Patriots have already defeated Gillett once this season. Tonight's game tips at 5 p.m., when the Junior Patriots take the floor.
* PREP BASKETBALL
High School
Tuesday, January 22
Jacksonville at Forrest City
Blytheville at Jonesboro
LR Mills at Cabot
Sylvan Hills at West Memphis
LR Catholic at LR Parkview
LR Central at Mountain Home
LR Hall at Conway
Benton at Pine Bluff
Batesville at Osceola
Newport at Marion
Wynne at Paragould
Searcy at Morrilton
EPC at Trumann
Manila at Harrisburg
Gillett at Palestine-Wheatley
Brinkley at DeWitt
Dumas at PB Dollarway
Lonoke at England
Augusta at Carlisle
Des Arc at Hazen
DeValls Bluff at McCrory
Altheimer at Clarendon
Cross County at Crawfordsville
Marked Tree at Turrell
Parkin at Earle
Elaine at Marvell
Junior High School
Hughes at West Memphis East