By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Based on the past two matchups between Forrest City and Little Rock Central, tonight's game at Mustang Arena should be a good one.
On November 18, the Mustangs went to Central to open the season and came home on the short end of a two-point 63-61 loss.
A last-second shot by Forrest City to win the game was off the mark.
During the 2000 Class AAAAA state tournament, at Pine Bluff, the Tigers clipped the Mustangs 59-57 on a last-second shot in a first-round game.
Two games, two Central victories -- but only by a total of four points.
Tonight's two-game set begins at 6 p.m. with the varsity girls' game.
The Mustangs are coming off a 1-2 performance in the Rumble on the Ridge Thanksgiving tournament last weekend.
Forrest City lost to Provine, Miss. in the opening game, defeated Hoover, Ala. and lost to Bradley Central, Tenn., in the fifth-place game.
The loss to Bradley Central came as the Mustangs took the floor minus three key players -- juniors Nick Grady, Sherman Allen and Taurus Moore. Grady and Allen were suspended while Moore's absence was excused.
Moore and Grady had started against Provine and Allen came off the bench.
Against Hoover and Bradley Central, all three came off the bench as Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton shuffled his lineup, starting senior forward Maurice Lowe in place of Moore, senior forward Roy Parker in place of Grady.
Senior guard/forward Lorenzo Spearmon started all three Rumble games and was named to the Rumble's All-Tournament Team.
Sophomore guard/forward Cameron Henderson started two of the three games while senior center Deangelo "Buck' Braddock and senior guard John Forman each started two of the three games.
Tonight against Central, Lofton said his plans are to start Lowe, Parker, Spearmon, Henderson and either Forman or Moore. Allen will dress out tonight but Grady will sit out tonight's home affair.
"The guys were still a little sore on Monday from playing the three Rumble games," Lofton said. "I'm anxious to see how we bounce back. Tonight is a big game for us and it goes a long way in measuring where our program is and where our program needs to be."
Lofton said the three-game Rumble gave the team and the coaching staff the chance to pin-point some of the team's weaker areas.
One of those was putting the opponent on the foul line too many times.
Against Provine, Forrest City sent the Rams to the foul line 28 times, resulting in 24 points. Hoover went to the free throw line 31 times, hitting 24. Bradley Central made it to the line just 11 times.
"That was an improvement," Lofton said. "We have to cut down on our fouling and we have to take care of the ball."
*The Forrest City Lady Mustangs (1-4) are trying to battle through a different set of circumstances that has depleted Coach Sue Jayroe's ranks as the team prepares to host the Little Rock Central Lady Tigers tonight.
Headed into the exhibition game against Pulaski Academy last Saturday at the Rumble, Jayroe had several girls who either had the flu or who were showing flu-like symptoms.
The Lady Mustangs fell 65-53 to the Lady Bruins.
Senior center Teela Lee did not play at the Rumble and has not dressed out in more than a week. She is not expected to play tonight.
Junior forward Torrie Willis, who has logged some valuable minutes off the bench for the Lady Mustangs, is sick and starting senior guard Trina Wynne is recovering from a flu-like ailment but is not 100 percent, although she did play Saturday.
"We're just trying to regroup," Jayroe said. "We lost two of three at the Mount St. Mary's tournament the week before the Rumble, something we didn't expect. Right now, we're just doing our best to keep out attitudes good and our minds on playing as well as we can play."
Jayroe said she knows nothing about the Lady Tigers.
"It won't take us long to know where we are once the game starts," she added.
Jayroe said her Lady Mustangs will have to play better on defense tonight.
"Against Pulaski Academy, we were out of position a lot of the time on defense," Jayroe said. "But despite that and despite all of the health problems, I was not disappointed in our effort against Pulaski Academy. The girls never gave up. And I made as many coaching mistakes in the game as we made on the floor."
Tonight's game against the Lady Tigers is the first for a Jayroe-coached team and the first meeting between the two teams in several years.
SEARCY -- Jonesboro's Rachel Allison hit two free-throws with 13 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime, but the Lonoke Lady Jackrabbits held on to win 54-51 in two overtimes Monday night in the first game of the White County Medical Center Tournament senior girls' basketball tournament.
Trailing by three with 13 seconds left to play in the second overtime, the Lady Hurricane had the ball under the basket, but were unable to hit a shot.
Allison had 28 points for Jonesboro, while Jackie Gilbert scored 16 for JHS.
*Ashley Anderson paced the Lady Panthers (5-0) with 20 points in a 58-34 victory over the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves in the first round of the CAC-OrthoArkansas Invitational Tournament.
Brittany Goings added 12 points and Lauren Daniels 11 for Cabot.
*In a game that saw no double-digit scorers, Nettleton defeated Harrisburg 35-24 in senior girls' basketball at the Pre-Holiday Tournament Monday night.
Nettleton was led by Brittney Heath, who had nine points. Harrisburg's Katie Murphy and Amanda Watts both had seven.
Senior Boys
Trailing most of the game, Cross County finally came alive in the fourth quarter, outscoring Cotton Plant 23-11 en route to a 60-54 victory Monday in senior boys' basketball.
Dewayne Cook scored 20 points for Cross County, including four 3-pointers , and had nine rebounds. Aaron Bowles and Patrick Jones both scored 14 points while Derek Little had seven rebounds for the Thunderbirds.
Junior Boys
Phil Hicks scored 14 points Monday night to help lead the Palestine-Wheatley Junior Patriots past Augusta 39-31 at the Junior Jaguar Classic at McCrory.
Taylor Clark and Justin Cathey each added eight points for P-W, who hit several late free throws to ice the win.
P-W returns to the tournament Thursday at 8:15 p.m,, to play Harding Academy.
The P-W Junior Lady Patriots lost to Harding Academy 34-10 Monday night.
The junior and senior girls and the senior boys are scheduled to play at Cotton Plant Thursday beginning at 5 p.m.
Stephon Weaver led four Forrest City Junior Mustang players in double figures Monday night as the team moved to 3-1 for the year with a 50-44 victory over Wynne's junior boys.
Weaver finished with 16 points while Kelson Stewart had 12 and Rylan Nimocks and Marcus Britt had 10 points each.
The Junior Mustangs led 26-14 at the half and 37-23 to start the fourth period before Wynne began to cut into the lead in the final quarter, getting within six points at 47-41 with 25 seconds to play.
Forrest City missed the front end of one-and-one free throw situations twice in the quarter and Weaver missed a pair of technical foul free throws.
Weaver did score the final five points of the game, hitting five straight free throws in the final 30 seconds.
The Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs suffered their first loss of the year to fall to 3-1 after trailing the Wynne junior girls 23-10 midway through the third period.
Forrest City begins AAAAA-East Conference play Thursday when they travel to West Memphis East.