By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Only three Forrest City Lady Mustangs put points on the board Tuesday night against Blytheville, but it was enough for a 53-48 AAAAA-East Conference victory at Mustang Arena.
Caronica Randle led with 23 points, hitting double figures for the seventh time in the last eight games, while senior Deosha Agnew wasn't far behind with 20 points. Trina Wynne added 10 to round out the scoring.
Agnew led the Lady Mustangs with 17 rebounds while Randle grabbed 16. Katrina Floyd hauled in 11 boards while Wynne came away with six steals during the game.
Crystal Summage took her third charge of the season Tuesday to lead the team.
"Crystal played solid defense for us and that's what we need on the floor," said Lady Mustang Coach Sue Jayroe.
Tuesday's win leaves the Lady Mustangs at 6-6 for the year and 2-0 in the league, the best conference start for a Lady Mustang team since 1994, when Forrest City defeated West Helena and North Pulaski to start 2-0 in the old AAAA-East Conference.
However, Tuesday's win over Blytheville didn't come easy.
The Lady Chicks led 17-13 after the first period, 29-22 at the half and 33-30 to start the fourth period.
Forrest City heated up to outscore Blytheville 23-to-15 in the fourth period, getting 10 points from Agnew, seven from Randle and six from Wynne for the come-from-behind win.
Audrey Jones led Blytheville with 12 points while Kenya Moore added 10 and Joy Thompson finished with nine.
Forrest City joins Jacksonville and Jonesboro as the three unbeaten teams in the East conference.
Forrest City travels to Jonesboro Friday night.
*Jacksonville cruised to an easy 67-31 victory over Mills Tuesday at The Galaxy, to move to 2-0 in conference play.
Alecia Yancey led the Lady Red Devils with 15 points. Brandi Rodgers and Terrise Williams added 12 and 10 respectively.
Krishna Baker scored 10 for Mills, which falls to 0-2 in league play.
*April Harris led all scorers with 15 points which helped the Sylvan Hills Lady Bears to a 59-50 win over Cabot Tuesday night.
The Lady Bears improve to 8-2 overall and 1-1 in the AAAAA-East.
Cabot falls to 8-7 and 0-2. Amanda Sisk added 14 and Courtney Brown 13 for Sylvan Hills.
Brittney Goins and Emily Fulmer each had points 11 for Cabot.
*At Jonesboro, the Lady Hurricane shocked the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils 64-62 to improve to 2-0 in the league.
West Memphis falls to 1-1 in conference play.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Mustangs shot just 25 percent from the field Tuesday night which led to a 56-34 loss to Blytheville in AAAAA-East Conference play at Mustang Arena.
The Mustangs hit just 13 of their 52 shots from the floor for the game. They hit only four of 26 attempts in the first half which the Mustangs trailing 25-13 at the break.
Early in the first half, the Mustangs stayed close, leading after the first period, 8-6.
Things changed drastically in the second period when Blytheville opened with a pair of three pointers, a two and a conventional three-point play on their way to outscoring the Mustangs 19-to-5 to take a 25-13 lead at the half.
"We felt pretty good in the first period," said Mustang Coach Dwight Lofton. "We were still in the game and then bang, they hit a couple of big shots and we didn't and the game turned to their favor."
Both teams played even in the third period -- each scoring 12 points -- but that didn't allow Forrest City to close the gap and they still trailed by 12 at the end of three periods, 37-25.
Blytheville put up 19 in the fourth period to assure themselves of the win.
Forrest City slips to 2-10 overall, which equals the worst start for the team since the 1998-99 season.
The 0-2 start in conference is the worst since the 1996-97 year, Lofton's first year as head coach.
Blytheville joins Sylvan Hills and West Memphis as the early conference leaders. Each of the three are 2-0 in the league.
Forrest City will have a shot to get their first conference win Friday when they travel to Jonesboro to take on the Hurricane.
*Jeremy Brown led the Sylvan Hills Bears (7-3, 2-0) with 19 points in a AAAAA-East victory over the visiting Cabot Panthers 70-48 Tuesday night at Sylvan Hills.
Cabot slips to 4-9 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
Damon Harris added 16 for Sylvan Hills.
*Sixth-ranked LR Mills rebounded from Friday's loss against West Memphis to take a 67-41 win over Jacksonville Tuesday night.
Jacksonville falls to 3-10 overall and 0-2 in the AAAAA-East while Mills improves to 12-3 and 1-1.
The Comets led 33-23 at halftime.
Bam Doyne finished with a game-high 23 points to lead Mills.
*At Jonesboro, West Memphis improved to 2-0 in the league with a 71-32 win over Jonesboro, who slips to 0-2 in the conference.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
ENGLAND -- Before Tuesday's 6AAA Conference game at England, Hughes Coach Brad Brannen admitted he knew very little about the Lions.
He thought they were going have good size -- they didn't.
He figured they would play a zone against his Blue Devils to try and slow them down. If they did, it didn't have much effect.
Robert Davis and Courtley London each scored 13 points and Antonio Cotton added 10 as the Blue Devils routed the Lions 89-44.
The Blue Devils, ranked second in Class AAA, improve to 14-4 overall and 4-0 in the league.
The 89 points is a new season high for the team. Hughes scored 83 against Brinkley and DeWitt before the holiday break.
The game was over before it started as the Blue Devils raced to a 25-6 lead after one period and pushed that to 45-20 at the half.
Hughes will travel to Lonoke Friday to face the Jackrabbits in a key 6AAA game.
The Blue Devils will be facing former Hughes coach Wes Swift, who left the school after leading the Blue Devils to the Class AAA state title last March, for the first time.
*In junior boys action Tuesday, the Junior Blue Devils got 14 points from David Dowden and 12 from Clifton Smith in a win over England's junior Lions.
Hughes improves to 3-6 for the year and 2-0 in the conference.
*Having not played since Dec. 22, the Hughes Lady Blue Devils returned to action Tuesday, picking up a conference win over the Lady Lions.
Latisha James led three Hughes players in double figures, with 16 points, to a 49-34 victory.
Victoria Doolittle added 13 points and Rachel Burks added 11 points.
The Lady Blue Devils improve to 2-8 for the year and 2-2 in the league.
Both the Blue Devils and Lady Blue Devils will be in action at Lonoke Friday as well as both junior high teams.
The four-game set tips at 4 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Palestine-Wheatley junior guard Deville Pickett scored 28 points Tuesday night, including three, three-pointers in the first period, to lead the Patriots to a 72-35 win over Barton.
P-W improves to 7-10 for the year and 3-1 in the 6AA Conference with their third consecutive victory.
Oliver Smith added 13 points, Quinton Mason 10 and Brandon Roberts had nine.
The Bears fall to 0-4.
P-W led 24-7 after one period and 36-13 at the half.
By the third period, the P-W bench was empty and the Patriots led 57-24 after an 11-to-2 run to start the second half.
*Curtis Allen and Fred Leak each scored 10 points to lead the Junior Patriots to a 42-21 win over Barton Tuesday.
Tony Huntley, Rashad Barnes, D.J. Banks and Alvin Smith each finished with six points while Marcus Gardner added two points for the Junior Pats.
P-W led 14-4 after one period and 18-7 at the half.
Lance Brown led Barton with six points.
The Junior Patriots took a forfeit win over Holly Grove Monday and stand at 6-3 overall and 2-0 in the league.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Palestine-Wheatley's streak of 37 consecutive conference victories ended Tuesday night against Barton.
The Lady Bears, fueled by Saneka Johnson and Trinia Williams, picked up their first-ever victory over the senior Lady Patriots, winning 48-37.
Palestine-Wheatley's last conference loss came against Turrell during the 1997-98 season in the old 3A-South league.
Since then, the Lady Patriots had reeled off 37 consecutive conference wins over the past three years -- including three consecutive 12-0 conference seasons in the 6AA.
During that span, the Lady Patriots had defeated Barton eight times -- six in regular-season conference games and twice in district tournament play.
Tuesday night, Barton 4-0 overall and in conference, opened a 16-2 lead after the first period and pushed their cushion to 23-10 at the half, despite an 8-to-2 P-W run in the early going of the second period.
The Lady Bears retained a 12-point lead at 33-21 to start the final period, which proved to be wild for both teams.
Johnson scored the first six points of the fourth period as Barton pushed their lead to 39-21.
P-W answered with a 7-to-1 run to cut Barton's lead to 40-30 with just over three minutes left.
With 54 seconds to play and Barton leading 46-34, P-W's Nikita Love was ejected from the game after a hard, intentional foul on Johnson, shoving her out of bounds and to the floor. Johnson hit one of the two free throws.
With 21 seconds to play, Barton was hit with a technical foul but P-W's Nikki Bass missed both free throws. Two seconds later Bass returned to the foul line where she hit one of two free throws to cut Barton's lead to 10 points at 47-37.
Johnson hit one more free throw to set the final score.
Bass led the Lady Patriots (6-10 overall and 3-1) with 11 points while LaRhonda Bender and Brittney Flenory added nine points each. Love and Libby Martin finished with four points each.
Under Arkansas Activities Association rules, Love will have to sit out Friday's game against Altheimer.
That game will be played at Altheimer.
* PREP BASKETBALL
Boys' AAAAA-East
Conf. O/all
West Memphis 2-0 0-0
Blytheville 2-0 5-8
Sylvan Hills 2-0 7-3
LR Mills 1-1 12-3
Cabot 1-1 4-9
Jonesboro 0-2 0-0
Forrest City 0-2 2-10
Jacksonville 0-2 3-10
Girls' AAAAA-East
Conf. O/all
Forrest City 2-0 6-6
Jacksonville 2-0 0-0
Jonesboro 2-0 0-0
Sylvan Hills 1-1 8-2
West Memphis 1-1 0-0
Blytheville 0-2 0-0
Cabot 0-2 8-7
Little Rock Mills 0-2 0-0
Friday, January 11
AAAAA-East
Forrest City at Jonesboro
Cabot at Blytheville
Jacksonville at West Memphis
LR Mills at Sylvan Hills
6AAA Conference
Hughes at Lonoke
DeWitt at England
Brinkley at PB Dollarway
6AA Conference
Thursday, January 10
Gillett at Barton
Friday, January 11
Clarendon at Marvell
Palestine-Wheatley at Altheimer
Junior High
Thursday, January 10
WMemphis East at FCity Blue
FCity White at WMemphis West