By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BLYTHEVILLE -- The Forrest City Blue Mustangs are making their final stand interesting.
Wednesday, the fifth-seeded Blue Mustangs used two overtime periods to get past top-seeded West Memphis Wonder 53-51 in the first junior boys' semifinal game at the AAAAA-East Junior District Tournament at Blytheville.
In what will be the final game ever for the team, the Blue Mustangs will take on West Memphis West tonight in the district finals set for 7:30 p.m., in the main gym at Blytheville.
West defeated Blytheville 38-37 to advance to tonight's title game.
During regular season, the Blue Mustangs downed West by 20 at Mustang Arena but lost by one point in the return match played on West's home floor.
Beginning next season, Forrest City Junior High returns to the one-team format in all sports after fielding two teams in basketball, football and track the past three seasons.
The Blue Mustangs become the first Forrest City junior high boys basketball team to reach the finals of the district tournament since 1988, when Charles "Chalk" Bowlin's Colts defeated Helena-Miller 32-28 in double overtime to win the 4A district title.
That tournament was played at Jonesboro.
Interestingly enough, Bowlin's '88 team defeated West Memphis Wonder in the semifinals 34-30 to get to the championship game.
"I remember that trying to win the junior high district tournament was a tough thing to do," Bowlin, who now resides in Memphis, said. "We had some good players during those years and we were able to win the tournament two of my final three years at Forrest City."
Bowlin watched as three of his players were named to that year's All-Tournament team -- Billy Boyd, Shawn Galloway and Kenneth Griffin.
Boyd also took home the Most Valuable Player award and the Colts received the sportsmanship trophy as well.
Wednesday, Forrest City guard Stephon Weaver led the Blue Mustangs with 18 points while Marcus Britt added 15 and Michael Alston finished with 10, but it was the defensive play by Britt and Larry Bean who made the difference, according to Blue Mustang coach Jimmy Williams.
"Both Bean and Britt were outstanding on defense," Williams said. "Especially their play in the overtime periods. Each had key steals and then converted the layups to keep us in the game. In my mind Britt was the defensive player of the game and he also made his free throws when he had too."
Britt made all four of his free throw chances in the second overtime period as the Blue Mustangs outscored Wonder 11-to-9.
Forrest City led 12-6 after one period, aided by 10 Wonder turnovers and 20-17 at the half before Wonder put together a 14-to-5 scoring effort in the third period to lead 31-25 to start the fourth period.
Wonder center Corey Weast scored five straight points, all off offensive stickbacks to give Wonder a 22-20 lead in the third.
The Blue Mustangs regained their touch and the two teams ended regulation tied at 35-35. Both teams scored seven points each in the first overtime to end in a 42-42 deadlock to force the second overtime.
Wonder's Corey Wilson missed the front end of a one-and-one with 28 seconds left in the first overtime which would have given the Lions the lead.
And with Wonder trailing 52-49 with less than 10 seconds remaining in the second overtime, Wonder's Jamie Hamilton drove for an easy layup rather than take an open three-pointer, leaving the Blue Mustangs with a 52-51 edge.
*In the other boys' semifinal, Blytheville trailed West 9-3 after the first period, 17-15 at the half and 27-24 heading into the fourth period.
"I think our chances against West are much better than if we were playing Blytheville," Williams said. "We are better off playing West on a neutral floor rather than playing Blytheville on their home floor."
With a win 38-26 win over West Memphis West on Wednesday, top-seeded Jonesboro Annie Camp set up a showdown with No. 2 seeded Jonesboro MacArthur tonight in the finals of the junior girls' district tournament.
The two regular-season powers will collide at 6 p.m. in the main gym at Blytheville.
MacArthur downed West Memphis East in semifinal action Wednesday 34-27.
Annie Camp led 11-2 after the first period, 21-9 at the half and 34-19 heading into the final stanza.
MacArthur outscored East 12-4 in the fourth period to post their semifinal win.
The Wynne Lady Yellowjackets moved into the semifinals of the AAAA-East junior high district tournament with a 31-18 win over Beebe Wednesday night.
In other action, the Batesville junior boys topped Paragould 35-29.
Alicia Tucker was the top scorer for the Lady Yellowjackets with 16 points.
Beebe was led by Beth Quick's 11 points.
In the girls' semifinals tonight, Wynne will play No. 1-seeded Greene County Tech at 4 p.m. and Marion will take on Paragould at 6:30 p.m.
Chris Stidham led the Paragould boys' with 13 points. Kyle Birmingham followed with eight points in the loss.
Tonight, Batesville will play top-seeded GCT at 5:15 and Marion plays Beebe at 7:45.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CLARENDON -- The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots ran into early foul trouble against Marvell Wednesday night and never recovered.
Playing in the quarterfinals of the 6AA district tournament at Clarendon, the No. 2 seeded Lady Patriots lost to the No. 6 seeded Lady Mustangs.
Nikita Love, LaRhonda Bender and Brittany Flenory each had two fouls after the first period forcing P-W Coach Lanny Allen to go to his bench early.
However, it is not the end of the line for the Lady Patriots, who will advance to regional tournament play next week at Harding Academy, by virtue of being the higher seeded team to lose.
Marvell advances to play either Gillett or Elaine in Friday's semifinal game.
No. 3 seeded Gillett and No. 4 seeded Elaine will play tonight at 7 p.m.
The Lady Patriots were playing for the first time in the district tournament after receiving a first-round bye.
Altheimer, the No. 1 seeded team into the bracket, was given a bye to the finals and awaits a saturday opponent.
Palestine-Wheatley would be the fourth seed into the Region 6 Tournament and would play at 7 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
Libby Martin led the Lady Pats Wednesday with 18 points while Bernice Sparkman finished with eight.
The No. 2 seeded P-W Junior Lady Patriots will play for the first time in the district Friday at 4:30 p.m., after being awarded a forfeit win over Elaine in the first round.
P-W's Junior Patriots, 46-36 winners over Gillett on Monday, will play No. 1 seeded Altheimer today at 5:45 p.m. for a chance to advance to Saturday's championship game.
The third-seeded Patriots will play No. 4 seed Elaine today at 8:15 p.m.
The winner returns on Friday for a semifinal game against either Marvell or Clarendon.
The Forrest City Mustangs' season-opening baseball game, set for today at Marion, has been cancelled due to wet field conditions.
Forrest City is scheduled to play at the West Memphis tournament next week.