By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Eight days.
That's how long it took Forrest City senior forward Caronica Randle to move from Forrest City to Jonesboro to Conway.
The highly recruited Lady Mustang basketball player signed a letter-of-intent Wednesday with the University of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears.
The signing, held in Mustang Arena and witnessed by the entire Forrest City girls' basketball team, brought closure to what has been a gut-wrenching college recruiting ride for Randle.
On Monday, April 14, Randle announced she would sign with Arkansas State University on the April 16 national signing day.
Two days later, Randle had a change of heart and called off the scheduled signing. Tuesday, she chose the Division II route at Conway over the Division I thoroughfare through Jonesboro.
Randle said the recruiting process was "harder that I ever imagined."
"I did not think it would be this stressful.," said the 5-11 senior. "Now I see how tough it is to make the right decision and to be certain I am going in the right direction. Now I see that.
Randle said she liked both schools.
"I've been to ASU several times, but there was just something about UCA that caught my attention," Randle said Wednesday. "It didn't matter which school I chose, I know that I will have to work hard to earn playing time."
Randle selected UCA over a long list of schools which included Arkansas State, Ouachita Baptist, Lyon College, UA-Fort Smith, UA-Pine Bluff, the University of Huntsville, Ala., South Plains College in Levelland, Texas and Baylor.
She becomes the second Lady Mustang player to sign a college letter-of-intent this year. Fellow senior Katrina Floyd signed with Crowley's Ridge College in early March. Last year, Deosha Agnew signed with Pratt Community College, a two-year school in Pratt, Kansas.
Randle was a three-year starter for Sue Jayroe's Lady Mustang basketball team and was the only AAAAA-East Conference player to join 15-player Arkansas Prep Hoops All-Academic Team and was one of just four East conference players named to the 15-person All-Arkansas Teams this year as well as being recognized as one of the Players of the Week during the 2002-03 high school basketball season.
Last year, as a junior, Randle was named to the Arkansas Prep Hoops Future Stars team, the only player from the AAAAA-East to earn the honor.
Randle led the team in scoring this year with 596 points to bring her three-year total to 1,112 points, good enough for a three-year scoring average of 16.1 points per game.
She grabbed 242 rebounds this past season and had 63 steals while handing out 76 assists and 34 blocked shots.
She hit just over 72 percent of her free throws and shot almost 54 percent from the floor -- 33 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
She leaves with 470 total rebounds through three seasons and 120 steals.
Randle scored a 25 on the ACT and has a 3.93 overall grade point average, which ranks her 12th in the senior class.
She is ranked in the top 10 percent of the 2003 Forrest City High School graduating class.
Randle is the daughter of L.C. and Doris Randle of Forrest City.
The UCA Sugar Bears reached the NCAA Division II Tournament's Elite Eight this year under head coach Ron Marvell
The Sugar Bears lose only one senior, Kristin Frase and could return four seniors, four juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen, although Steve East, UCA sports information director, said today, "those numbers could change."
Besides Randle, UCA has already signed Guy-Perkins' Ashley Hutchcraft and Little Rock Parkview's Renita Dobbins and East said Marvell may sign one more.
Jonesboro doesn't need much help, but it didn't help itself much either.
The Lady Hurricane finished AAAAA-East play with an 11-5 loss to Cabot Wednesday afternoon, leaving their postseason hopes in limbo for a few more days.
Meanwhile, following heavy rainfall overnight and this morning and the high percentage for additional rain today, today's schedule of prep games may or may not be played.
The Forrest City Lady Mustang softball team were scheduled to play at Wynne today while the Forrest City Mustang baseball team will lost a conference game against Searcy. The Hughes Lady Blue Devils were scheduled to play a slow-pitch softball game today against Cross County.
Jonesboro (11-10 overall, 9-5 AAAAA-East) could've clinched a playoff spot Wednesday and the third-place seed from the conference with a win over Cabot.
But the Lady Hurricane couldn't handle the hard-throwing right-hander Molly Flemming and Cabot (12-12, 9-3) inched closer to securing its own spot in a conference that has a logjam of teams at the top.
The Lady Hurricane needs one more loss in conference play by Jacksonville or Mountain Home to guarantee themselves a spot in the postseason. Jacksonville, which Jonesboro swept earlier this season, has two games left against Cabot. Mountain Home, which Jonesboro split with, has a doubleheader against conference co-leader West Memphis.
Cabot used two big offensive innings to complete a season sweep of JHS while Flemming was overpowering from the mound. The Lady Panthers scored four runs in the second inning and seven runs in the fourth in taking an 11-0 lead.
Jonesboro managed to score four times in the fifth to keep from being run-ruled and added another run in the seventh, but the rally fell well short.
Flemming had a lot to do with it. Flemming (7-7) beat the Lady Hurricane for the second time this season, pitching a complete game. She allowed four runs, none earned, on six hits and five walks while striking out three.
"She's a pretty good pitcher," Baker said. "She beat us last time when we only scored one run off her. We finally got to her in that one inning but she's tough. She kept us off-balance but we're better hitters than that. She likes to hit that outside corner and when she did, we were swinging at it and we helped her out some."
JHS starter Amanda Berry took the loss, throwing all seven innings for the Lady Hurricane. Berry allowed 11 runs, seven earned, on 12 hits and four walks. She struck out two.
Trailing 11-0 with two out in the fifth, Jonesboro's Sara Lehman drilled a two-run single to left to keep the Lady Hurricane in the game. Chelsea Reeves then launched a two-run homer to right-center field to make it 11-4.
JHS added a run when Reeves singled and Lehman, who had walked, circled the bases when the relay throw in was misplayed for an error.
Cabot's Amanda Payne led the Lady Panthers with four hits and three runs batted in while Shanna Chamberlain had two doubles and an RBI. Tara Sterrenberg and Allison Aston added two hits apiece for Cabot.
Reeves was the only Lady Hurricane to manage more than one hit as she finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. JHS had just six hits total.
Jonesboro committed two errors in Cabot's four-run fourth inning and another error in the Lady Panthers' seven-run outburst.
"We've got a pretty solid defense, too, except for that one inning," Baker said. "It might have been a different game, might have been different if we had made a couple of those plays."
RUSTON -- Louisiana Tech senior Cheryl Ford will be in attendance Friday in New York for the WNBA Draft.
Ford is expected to be a high draft choice.
The two-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year has been in limbo along with the rest of the WNBA waiting for a collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players.
Ford led Louisiana Tech to a 118-16 record during her four years as a Lady Techster, including four NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing as far as the Elite Eight twice during her career.
The former Summerfield High School prep star started 78 of 133 games at Tech, averaging 10.3 points and 7.9 rebounds during her career.
She recorded 33 double doubles, including a career-high 28 points against Tulsa and 25 rebounds against Fresno State, both coming this year.
Ford is the daughter of Bonita Ford of Haynesville and former Bulldog and NBA great Karl Malone.
She told the media that "she hopes Friday would be the beginning of a life long goal to play pro basketball."
Physical exams will be given Saturday, May 3, for all Forrest City girls who will be participating in athletics or cheerleading for the upcoming 2003-04 school year.
The physical exams will be given at the offices of Dr. Susan Patton, 901 Holiday Drive, from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Cost per student is $10 and forms may be obtained from Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe or any of the Forrest City coaches.
For those unable to take advantage of the May 3 date, the exams will be given again on Tuesday, May 6, from 4 until 8 p.m.