By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
FORREST CITY -- First-year Pulaski Academy head coach Matt Daniel said last week his Bruiins "were coming to the Rumble on the Ridge tournament expecting to win."
And the two-time defending Class AAA Bruins did not disappoint their new head coach.
Pulaski Academy rolled through the competition at the three-day, three-game guarantee tournament, now in its seventh year, to become the second straight Arkansas team to claim the tournament title.
A year ago, the Little Rock Parkview Patriots became only the second Arkansas team to reach the final game and the first in-state team to win it. The host team Forrest City Mustangs made it to the finals of the 2000 Rumble, only to lose to Lee, Ala.
Truly, the Bruins were on a mission. That mission ended in victory when Pulaski Academy survived a last-second shot from Denham Springs' D.J. Thomas to defeat the Yellow Jackets 50-48 Saturday night at Mustang Arena.
The tide turned to P.A.'s favor at the 2:35 mark of the game when Tasmin Mitchell, the nation's top-ranked junior fouled out for Denham Springs and Pulaski Academy trailing just 46-41. Once Mitchell took a seat on the bench, the Bruins responded.
Tournament MVP Sammy Munsey scored 15 points, including making the steal which led to his tie-breaking layup with 1:22 remaining, to help give the Bruins the 50-48 victory.
Mitchell, a 6-7 junior forward, had game highs with 19 points and 12 rebounds while Thomas finished with 17 points.
Pulaski Academy got to the tournament finals by defeating Hoover, Ala. 75-44 on Thanksgiving Day led by Munsey's 23 points and Buddy Harding's 16 points. That victory set up Friday's winner's semifinal game against Provine, Miss., the top-ranked team in Mississippi. Again, Munsey came through by scoring 32 points to lead the Bruins to a 60-50 win over the Rams.
The Bruins' two-point victory was also the closest margin in the seven championship games.
Three other Rumble championships had been decided by seven points.
While Mitchell going to the bench with his fifth foul certainly helped the Bruins' cause, Pulaski Academy had already begun to rally after they trailed 16-12 after the first period, getting back within one point at 22-21 at the half before falling behind 40-33 early in the fourth period.
Mitchell's fifth foul sent P.A.'s Will Peeples to the foul line where he hit both free throws to get the Bruins within 46-43.
Peeples, the Bruins senior center, helped spark the Bruins with seven points in the final 4:47 and forced Mitchell into his fifth foul, drawing a blocking call inside the lane. Peeples finished with 15 points.
Buddy Harding, who had 11 points, tied the game at 48 with 1:34 left with two of free throws. Only a few seconds later, Munsey picked up a loose ball and scored the go-ahead layup with 1:22 left.
Denham Springs held for the final shot, but D.J. Thomas' three-point attempt with three seconds left, was well short of the mark as guard Wes Buchman grabbed the rebound and held on tight as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
Munsey was only 5 of 12 from the field and 1 of 6 from three-point range, but he finished with 72 points for the tournament.
"I've said this before, but Sammy Munsey is the best pure shooter in the state," Daniel said. "There's no way he should not be playing Division I basketball next fall."
Provine, Miss. 71, West Memphis 68
West Memphis rallied from 18 points down in the second half but still came up just short in the Rumble on the Ridge third-place game. Saturday.
Senior Blue Devil guard Quentin Furlow led West Memphis (1-2) with 21 points and senior forward Desma McCoy added 17 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds in a losing effort.
Provine (9-1), the No. 1 ranked team in Mississippi by the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, scored the first seven points of the second half and led 45-27 with 6:00 left in the third quarter.
West Memphis, which was given the tournament's Sportsmanship Award, outscored the Rams 41-26 the rest of the way.
Provine senior guard Charlie White, who led the Rams with 21 points, hit a free throw with 2.9 seconds left to give Provine a 71-68 lead.
Marichius Mangum's shot from half court at the buzzer hit the net but was short.
Bradley Central, Tenn. 71, Forrest City 56
The Bradley Central Bears hit only eight three-pointers in the fifth-place game, but it seemed like more.
"They hit the threes at the right time," Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton said. "The first two possessions of the second half they knocked down the three-pointers. They live and die with those shots and you have to give credit to them for hitting them."
The Mustangs were playing without Nick Grady, Taurus Moore and Sherman Allen.
Senior forward Lorenzo Spearmon, who had 46 points combined in the Mustangs' first two Rumble games, was held to seven points. Spearmon was the only Mustang player named to the All-Tournament Team.
Senior forward Roy Parker took up some of that slack by scoring a season-high 18 points. Justin Hare, a 6-2 point guard for Bradley Central, led the Bears with 24 points.
Forrest City lost to Provine, Miss., 71-59 in the first-round game on Thursday and then defeated Hoover 71-61. Spearmon had 20 in the win over Hoover while Cameron Henderson had 11 and John Forman had 13.
Pulaski Academy 65, Forrest City 53
In the first girls game played at the Rumble, the Lady Bruins used 26 points and six assists from junior Jessica Berry to turn back the host Lady Mustangs.
The Lady Mustangs hit just 17 of their 61 shots from the field.
Halsey Ward added 18 points while Christina Byler 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Lady Bruins, who led 37-25 at the half.
Sequoria Grady's 18 points paced Forrest City.
Forrest City will host Little Rock Central Tuesday at 6 p.m., at Mustang Arena.
JUNCTION CITY The Dragons pounded Hughes 56-14 Friday and qualified for the Class AA semifinals for the third straight year.
In a repeat of last year's quarterfinal game, the Dragons once again prevailed in what ended as an ugly game.
Junction City will host Rison, a 34-0 winner over Bauxite, Friday in the one of two Class AA semifinal matchups.
Rison and Junction City will renew what has been, in past years, a bitter rivalry.
The two teams played against each other in the 7AA-East.
Rison will represent the 8 AA next week, with Junction City the 7AA East regular season champions.
Junction City defeated Rison in the second round of the 1999 playoffs. Rison owns numerous state championships, while the Dragons have never been to the title game.
Friday's winner will advance to Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium, Saturday, Dec. 13, to play either Barton or Charleston, the other semifinalists, for the Class AA title.
Barton defeated Palestine-Wheatley 50-6 before a standing-room only crowd Friday at Patriot Field.
The final four Class AA teams are all No. 1 seeds, conference champions, and undefeated on the year.
Charleston downed Altheimer 57-8 to set up th semifinal against Barton.
Junction (13-0) piled up 442 yards of offense and held the Blue Devils (10-3) to 92 yards, much of which came against the reserves late in the game.
The Dragons trailed for the first time all season, 7-6 after one quarter, but blew out Hughes the rest of the way. The Blue Devils' rushing game was shut down in the first half as the Dragons held Hughes to just 13 yards on 15 carries.
Dragons' sophomore kicker T.J. Thurlkill suffered a broken leg during the game and was taken by ambulance from the field and was scheduled to to have surgery today in Shreveport.
Senior tailback Brannin Carter rushed for 184 yards on 19 carries to lead the Dragons, who invoked the "mercy rule" for the 12th time this season.
By halftime, the Dragons had 226 yards of offense to just 22 for the Blue Devils, who beat Carlisle and Mountainburg to get into the quarterfinals.
Hughes took the lead early after holding Junction to just only yards on its opening possession. Carter couldn't handle a bad snap on a punt and the fumble was picked up by Jerome Thomas, who scored from eight yards out. Brian Hillis added the point-after kick and the Blue Devils led 7-0 with 9:53 left in the first quarter.
Senior Drew McKinnon tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to cousin Koby McKinnon, with 4:46 left in the first. The two-point pass failed, and Junction trailed after one quarter for the first time all season.
Carter ran 51 yards on the first play of the second quarter for the score and the McKinnon cousins hooked up for the two-point conversion and Junction led 14-7 with 11:51 left in the half. D. McKinnon went to the air again and found junior Greg Carter on a 35-yard scoring pass with 8:04 left. Jonathon Sims, who was 6-of-6 on extra-point kicks, made the score 21-7.
Hughes could find no success on the ground against the Dragons' defense, which entered giving up only 15.33 yards per game rushing. Senior backs Andre Walker and Ayodel Ogunsakin were held in check with Walker getting just 50 yards on 18 carries and Ogunsakin 16 yards on 14 carries. The Dragons made 10 tackles behind the line.
The half ended with Junction City ahead 28-7.
Junction City made it 42-7 in the third and with a little more than seven minutes remaining made it 49-7 before Walker scored for Hughes from 15 yards out with 7:08 left in the game. Hillis added the kick for a 49-14 score.
*At Palestine-Wheatley, the Barton Bears kept their record perfect against the Patriots -- in both regular season and playoff matchups -- rolling to the 50-6 win.
Barton has outscored their opponents this season 569-to-89 and stopped the Patriot offensive machine -- which led the state this season in total offensive yards.
The Bears led 36-6 at the half and put the "mercy rule" into effect with 5:17 remaining in the third period.
Palestine-Wheatley finishes the year at 11-2 and ranked 10th in the Class AA standings.
The Bears improve to 12-0 and will face Charleston in Friday's semifinal action.
Palestine-Wheatley lone touchdown came in the first half when senior tailback Brad Barton scored from five-yards out.