By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City took care of business Friday night, topping the Cabot Panthers 77-57 in a game played at Mustang Arena.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs weren't quite as fortunate, falling to Cabot 68-52.
The victory moves the Mustangs back into a tie with Blytheville for fourth in the AAAAA-East and puts the Mustangs right back in the thick of the conference race.
The Lady Mustangs remain in sixth, two games out of postseason contention.
The Mustangs, 7-12 overall and 4-5, started quick, taking a 21-9 lead after one period but allowed the Panthers to get back into the game in the second period when Cabot outscored the Mustangs 17-to-12 to trail 33-26 at the half.
Forrest City pushed their lead to 50-41 after three and then used a 27-to-16 scoring effort in the fourth period to produce the final score.
The 27-point fourth period was the season high for the team in one period this year.
Senior guard Kerry Evans led all scorers with 27 points, nine of that coming in the fourth period. Lorenzo Spearmon added 21 points for Forrest City, 10 in the fourth while Nick Grady finished with 14 points and Deangelo Braddock added 10.
In the fourth period, the Mustangs dropped in 13-of-16 free throws.
Brad Payne led Cabot with 17 points while Harrison Brumley added 13 points.
Cabot, 5-15 for the year and 1-8, nailed six, three pointers in the game.
The Friday win gave the Mustangs a sweep over Cabot in conference play this season.
*In the senior girls game, Cabot survived a 32-point performance by Forrest City senior forward Caronica Randle to take a 68-52 win over the Lady Mustangs.
Cabot sophomore Ashley Anderson took game-high scoring honors with by out-dueling Randle with 36 points.
Allie Gammill finished with 18 for Cabot.
Randle's 32 points came in second, third and fourth periods after going scoreless in the first period and totalled more than half of the total point scored by Forrest City.
The Cabot win avenged a 46-45 loss to the Lady Mustangs in the conference opening game at Cabot.
"The loss wasn't as bad as the final score might indicate," said Lady Mustang Coach Sue Jayroe. "The girls played hard and worked hard and they know they lost a tough game that they had every chance to win."
Besides the 32 points, Randle also had 10 rebounds and three assists. Randle scored 12 points in the second period, 10 in the third and 10 in the fourth. She canned 12-of-13 free throws.
It took seven other Lady Mustang players to score the remaining 20 points.
Shari Rogers finished with five points, Erika Haggans scored four and Shay Agnew and Katrina Floyd scored three each.
Forrest City will host Blytheville Tuesday night and will play at Searcy on Friday, Feb. 14.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
TURRELL -- The Hughes Blue Devils finished the regular season strong Friday, defeating the Turrell Rockets 68-62 at Turrell in the final 3AA-South Conference game for each team.
The win avenged Hughes' only conference loss, a 79-72 setback at Hughes.
The Blue Devils closed out the year with six victories to finish 11-1 in the league and 14-5 overall headed into the district tournament, starting Feb. 18, at Cross County.
Jermaine Davis led the way Friday with 20 points while Johnny Washington had 15, Malcolm Curne nine and Kevin Hatton and Courtley London with seven points each.
Hughes had five players, four of those starters, on the floor with four personal fouls each in the third quarter. Washington picked up his fourth personal foul in the second period.
The Blue Devils got their first lead of the game with 3:40 to play.
Turrell led 30-22 at the half before Hughes forced a 39-39 tie in the third.
Addidus Cooper led Turrell with 23 points while Joe Gibson added 18.
*The Hughes Junior Blue Devils lost to Turrell Friday and finish the conference year at 4-2.
The Junior Blue Devils are the No. 2 seeded team into the 3AA-South Junior District Tournament, which begins Tuesday, Feb. 11, at earle.
Hughes will play Cross County at 8 p.m.
*Turrell stayed perfect on the year and capped a perfect conference season by routing Hughes 69-25 Friday in senior girls' basketball.
Anshel Cooper scored 20 points and Shalamar Williams had 14 for Turrell (25-0, 12-0 3AA-South), which led 18-11 after a quarter, 38-14 at halftime and 57-23 after three quarters.
Hughes finishes the regular season at 8-7 overall and 7-5 in the 3AA-South.
The Hughes Junior Lady Blue Devils drew the No. 2 seed into the 3AA-South Junior High District Tournament, beginning Tuesday at Earle and will play No. 7 seeded Crawfordsville, at 7 p.m.
Gina Astin, of Forrest City recently earned the rank of 5th degree Black Belt and Master's rank, under the direction of Mike Brown, 7th degree Black Belt Senior Master.
Astin has been training in Tae Kwon Do for 20 years and is one of only a few Arkansas women to earn the title of Master.
She began training when she was eight.
Astin has become a nationally certified chief instructor with the National Tae Kwon Do Federation of America (NTFA), a certified women's self-defense instructor and regional director for the NTFA.
With her father, Carroll Astin, she is head instructor, one of the youngest in the nation, at Astin's Tae Kwon Do Academy located in Forrest City.
"To become a master requires a lot of hard work, and mentally it takes dedication," Astin said. "It also means giving up a lot of life's little extras but it was worth it. Without the support from my family and students, I'm not sure I could have done this."
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Blue Mustangs lost a tough AAAAA-East Conference game Friday night at West Memphis West.
Leading 39-37, with 24 seconds left to play in the game, the Blue Mustangs turned the ball over which resulted in a West Memphis layup and foul which ultimately gave West a 40-39 victory.
Forrest City led 18-14 after one period and 25-19 at the half before West rallied in the second half to get back in the game.
Stephon Weaver had 13 points to lead the Blue Mustangs while Michael Alston had 12 and Codero Allen finished with six.
The Blue Mustangs slip to 6-6 in the conference with two games left to play.
In the junior girls game, West Memphis West downed the Blue Lady Mustangs 45-13 to improve to 7-5 in the league.
In other conference games Saturday, West Memphis Wonder clipped Jonesboro MacArthur 34-31 in junior boys' action while MacArthur ran past West Memphis Wonder 50-29 in a junior girls' game.
Forrest City Blue will host Blytheville tonight at Mustang Arena while Forrest City White will play at Wonder.
Blue will finish the regular season at home Thursday when they host Jonesboro Annie Camp. White will play at Jonesboro MacArthur Tuesday in a make-up game and again Thursday to close out the regular season.
The postseason conference will be played at Blytheville.
If it's real "biting" competition you're looking for, then make sure to be in front of the old television set tonight at 7 p.m., with the dial set to USA.
That's when the 127th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, held in New York City, will take center stage for night one of its two-night run.
The show comes complete with an Arkansas flavor as 10 dogs from the Natural State will be among the 2,603 canines in competition. One of those 10 hails from Forrest City.
Two-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Ch. Rattlebridge Adagio, Gio for short, is co-owned by Sunni Dunn and Meredith Johnson-Snyder.
Dunn is the 14-year-old daughter of David and Lorri Dunn of Forrest City.
Gio defeated 35 other dogs in the Toy group judging earlier today and has advanced to the Toy group finals competition.
Gio is already a Canadian and American Kennel Club champion. Besides Gio, Sunni also has Lucy, her German shorthaired pointer, entered in the Junior Showmanship Competition which will be held Tuesday.
Since beginning competition at the age of 12, Sunni has drawn praise from several nationally renowned dog handlers and breeders, who call her "a natural."
She has won junior competitions statewide and beyond.
Gio and Sunni entered the competition expecting a top 10 finish at Westminster.
All dogs at Westminster are divided into seven groups, based on their characteristics.
They first compete for the best of breed title, and the winners advance to the best of group competition.
On Tuesday, the sporting, hound and herding dogs go, with best in show to follow.
Sunni is an eighth-grade student at Lee Academy in Marianna.
Registration for the Forrest City Recreation Department's youth baseball and softball summer leagues is now underway and will be until March 14.
Youth league fees are $15 for youths living inside the Forrest City city limits and $25 for those living outside the city limits.
Registration for the adult men and women's slow-pitch softball league is also under way and will continue through March 14.
Adult league fees are $350 per team plus an additional $10 for each out-of-town player listed on the team roster.
For more information about either of the leagues contact Kenneth Taylor at (870) 633-3667.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots kept their strangle-hold on the 6AA Conference Friday with a 69-11 win over Barton.
The Lady Patriots are 10-0 in the league with two games left to play in regular season.
The Lady Patriots play at Altheimer Tuesday and will host Elaine for senior night Thursday.
LaRhonda Bender led P-W with 17 points Friday while Libby Martin scored 12 points in the first period to finish with 16. Nikita Love, Brittney Flenory and LaQuanza Reeder each finished with 11 and Bernice Sparkman had three.
P-W led 28-2 after one period, 43-8 at the half and 60-8 after three.
The P-W Junior Lady Patriots suffered their first loss of the year, falling to Barton 24-23.
The junior girls are 10-1 overall and 5-1 in the league and will most likely be the No. 2 seed into the 6AA district tournament.
Tonisha Wynne and Keisha Stovall each had eight while Fallon Parker added seven.
Barton led 13-9 at the half before P-W rallied in the third to lead 19-14.
P-W went to the line just six times in the game, hitting four free throws while Barton had 19 chances, 15 of those trips in the fourth period.
The P-W Patriots defeated the Barton Bears Friday but at press time, no final score was available.