By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
First-year Forrest City Coach Jacky England gets his first taste of life in the AAAAA-East Conference tonight.
England's Junior Lady Mustangs, 3-1, will open league play on the road at West Memphis East tonight.
The Junior Lady Mustangs will be trying to rebound after suffering their first loss of the year Monday against Wynne.
Likewise, the Junior Mustangs, coached by Jimmy Williams, will open league tonight as well. Williams' boys are also 3-1 for the year.
In other junior high basketball games tonight, the Palestine-Wheatley Junior Patriots will take on Harding Academy at 8:15 in the semifinals of the Junior Jaguar Classic at McCrory.
The Junior Patriots defeated Augusta 39-31 Monday in first-round play. McCrory and Cross County will hook up in the other boys' semifinal game scheduled for 5:45.
Tonight's two winners will play for the tournament title Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
In the girls' bracket, Cross County and Augusta play today at 4:30 p.m. and Newark and Harding Academy take the floor at 7 p.m. The two winners meet Saturday at 6 p.m., to decide the girls' title.
The P-W junior girls, senior girls and senior boys will play at Cotton Plant tonight.
The Hughes Junior Blue Devils picked up their first win of the year Wednesday, defeating EPC in the consolation game of the EPC Invitational tournament.
The junior boys are 1-5 while the senior Blue Devils are 1-1 and the senior girls are 0-1.
The Hughes junior girls have yet to open the season.
JONESBORO -- There will be two new girls' champions when the dust clears at the 27th annual Northeast Arkansas Invitational tournament later this month.
Class AAAAA Cabot and AA Turrell have chosen not to return to the Convocation Center to defend their titles, so a new group of hungry girls' teams hope to celebrate Christmas with an NEA championship.
On the boys' side, Class AAAAA Blytheville and Class AA Buffalo Island Central each earned top seeds for the 56th annual boys' tournament when area coaches voted Wednesday night at the Convocation Center.
Defending champion East Poinsett County and 6-foot-6 swingman Marcus Monk earned the second seed in the AAA-AAAAA division behind 4-0 Blytheville, which returns four starters from last year's team.
EPC (1-0) edged Jonesboro 58-56 in last year's semifinals before topping Batesville 54-48 in the championship game.
The Hurricane (1-2) enter this year's tournament as the third seed in the large schools division while Batesville (1-2) is fourth, followed by Nettleton at fifth and Gosnell, with Ole Miss signee Jeremy Parnell, seeded sixth.
Pocahontas is the seventh seed, Cave City is eighth and Rivercrest ninth.
There are 20 teams entered in the AAA-AAAAA division, with four play-in games scheduled, starting Dec. 20.
There are 22 teams total in the boys' A-AA division with unbeaten BIC (11-0) selected as the favorite with Class A state champion Weiner right behind as the second seed.
The Cardinals lost in the semifinals to Marmaduke last year as the Greyhounds went on to claim the title with a victory over Parkin in the finals.
Riverside and Buster Campbell are the third seed this year in the small-school division with Crawfordsville fourth, followed by Marked Tree, Bay, Delaplaine, Lynn and defending champ Marmaduke.
On the girls' side, unbeaten Valley View was tabbed as the top seed in the AAA-AAAA division. The Lady Blazers are 8-0 and have beaten every opponent by at least 10 points so far.
Conference rival Rivercrest (6-1) is second behind Valley View with the two teams battling for the title two years ago.
The Lady Colts reached the final last year before falling 70-58 to Cabot.
Highland is the third seed in the 16-team field, followed by Pocahontas, which lost to Cabot in the semis last year, Cave City, Corning, Nettleton, Piggott and Hoxie.
Nettleton won the AAAA-AAAAA division two years ago and fell to Rivercrest in last year's large-school division semifinals.
In the girls' A-AA division, last year's runner-up Bay (7-2) earned the top seed in the 21-team field.
The Lady Yellowjackets knocked off second-seeded Maynard last year before falling to Turrell in an exciting final.
Riverside (10-3) is the second seed this year with Marmaduke (8-4) third.
The Lady Greyhounds had won two straight NEA titles before falling to Turrell in last year's semis.
Sloan-Hendrix (10-2) is seeded fourth in the small-school division, followed by Maynard, River Valley, Weiner, Salem and Biggers-Reyno.
The tournament will have just two divisions for the second straight year after the tournament had three divisions since 1977-78.
Absent from the NEA field this year are both Hughes teams who have opted to play in the Osceola Invitational, beginning Dec. 26.