By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CHERRY VALLEY -- Crawfordsville let another one slip away Friday night against Hughes.
Playing for the third time this season, the No. 2 seeded Tigers had the top-seeded Blue Devils on the ropes until the final minute and a half, when Hughes tied the game, took the lead and held on for a 66-63 win over Crawfordsville in the 3AA South district finals at Cross County.
That gives the Blue Devils the No. 1 seed into the Region 4 Tournament which begins Wednesday at Marmaduke.
The Blue Devils will play Maynard, the No. 4 seed from the 3AA North, Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
A first-round win puts the Blue Devils against the Bay-Marked Tree winner on Friday.
Hughes, 17-5, slipped past Crawfordsville both times in regular season play. Both times, the Tigers had their chances to win.
Friday night, Hughes trailed by three, 61-58 before Jermaine Davis tied the game at 61-61 with a long three.
Kevin Hatton put the Blue devils in front 63-61 with a jumper and Hughes held on by hitting their free throws, weathering a potential game-tying three pointer by Crawfordsville at the buzzer.
Hughes trailed 53-49 after three quarters, but outscored Crawfordsville 17-10 in the final period.
The Tigers will wear the No. 2 seed into the regional tournament and will face Marmaduke, Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Marked Tree is the No. 3 seed and will play Bay on Thursday while Parkin is the fourth seed and draws Buffalo Island Central in the first round.
Davis finished with 20 points to lead Hughes while Johnny Washington added 14, Malcolm Curne had 11 and Hatton finished with eight.
Jerry Burnett led Crawfordsville with 18 points.
*In the senior girls' final Friday night, unbeaten Turrell breezed to its 27th straight victory, blowing out Earle 64-46 Friday in the finals of the senior girls' 3AA-South district basketball tournament.
Shalamar Williams and Anshel Cooper each scored 20 points to lead fifth-ranked Turrell, which jumped to a 25-5 lead after a quarter and led 39-14 at halftime. Shaunatay Delany added 11 points for the Lady Rockets.
Latoya Cheers scored 23 to led Earle.
Turrell begins Region 4 play on Wednesday, when they take on Crowley's Ridge Academy at 7 p.m., at Marmaduke.
The Lady Rockets are currently ranked fifth in the latest Associated Press state poll.
Turrell, the 3AA-South regular-season and tournament champions, take on Crowley's Ridge Academy Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
The Hughes Lady Blue Devils will be the fourth seed into the regional and will take on top-seeded Marmaduke Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Hughes is making their first appearance in the regional tournament since the 1997-98 season. The Lady Blue Devils earned the trip by defeating Parkin in the first round of the 3AA South district tournament before losing to Turrell in the semifinals.
Earle is the second seed and will face Maynard in the first round while Marked Tree gets Bay in the first round.
The regional winner and runner-up advance to the Class AA state tournament, which will be played at Newark.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Mountain Home left Forrest City's state tournament hopes lying in the middle of Mustang Arena Friday night.
Ashlee Plumlee scored 33 points to lead the Lady Bombers past Forrest City 54-50 in what Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe had called a "must-win game for the Lady Mustangs."
The win, coupled with Jonesboro's win over Searcy, leaves the Lady Mustangs in fifth place and out of contention for a bid to the Class AAAAA state tournament.
Mountain Home earns the fourth seed into the tournament while Jonesboro will be the No. 3 seed, regardless of what happens Tuesday night when Forrest City ends regular season playing at Jonesboro.
"It would be nice to go up there and bring back a win over Jonesboro," Jayroe said. "And that is what we intend to do. Unfortunately, it won't change anything and we still won't make the state tournament."
Plumlee, Mountain Home's leading scorer, was held to just six points in the first half as the Lady Mustangs led 27-21 to start the second half.
Unfortunately, Forrest City's defensive effort broke down in the second half as Plumlee broke loose for 27 points. neither team led by more than four points in the third or fourth periods.
Mt. Home led 39-38 to start the fourth period before Forrest City rallied to retake the lead at 40-39 early.
Both teams were locked at 42-42 with six minutes to play, 48-48 with 3:46 left and 50-50 with three minutes showing before Mt. Home scored the final four points for the win.
Seniors Caronica Randle and Katrina Floyd led Forrest City as Randle scored 16 points and Floyd finished with a "double-double" 14 points and 14 rebounds. Sequoria Grady added 13 points while Kanetra Pendleton finished with four. Shari Rogers had 12 assists for the game.
"My girls played hard," Jayroe said. "We have a chance to finish at .500 in the conference."
A year ago, the Lady Mustangs finished 6-8 in the league and 10-14 overall.
Going into Tuesday's final, at Jonesboro, the team is 6-7 in the conference and 12-14.
Palestine-Wheatley lost to Altheimer Saturday night in the finals of the 6AA district tournament at Clarendon, but still will be the No. 2 seed into the Region 6 Tournament.
The Patriots downed Marvell in semifinal action Friday to get to Saturday's final.
The Patriots will play Harding Academy, Thursday at 5:30 p.m., at Harding Academy in Searcy.
The P-W girls are the No. 4 seed into the regional and will play Carlisle, Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The P-W junior girls won the district title Saturday with a 28-24 win over Barton.
Tonisha Wynne led the way with 13 points while Keisha Stovall added nine.
P-W defeated Clarendon Friday 44-12 to get to the finals.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Pencil in the Forrest City Mustangs for the Oscar for the leading role against Mountain Home in Friday night's adaptation of the classic "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" played out at Mustang Arena.
Hitting just four of their 31 first-half shots from the floor in the first half, the Mustangs looked like a completely different team in the second half.
Forrest City outscored Mountain Home 57-to-18 in the second half -- 36 of those points in the fourth period -- on their way to a 72-41 AAAAA-East conference win.
It was the fourth win in the last five games for the Mustangs, who remain tied with Blytheville for fourth place in the conference standings.
Forrest City, 10-13 overall and 7-6 in the conference, will close out regular season play Tuesday at Jonesboro while Blytheville will face Searcy.
Searcy downed Jonesboro Friday while Blytheville defeated Cabot.
West Memphis, a Friday winner over Jacksonville, has already clinched the boys' conference title and will be the No. 1 seed from the East into the Class AAAAA state tournament, to be played next week at North Little Rock. Searcy has already clinched the No. 2 seed into the state tournament, leaving Forrest City, Jonesboro and Blytheville in contention for the final third and fourth seed.
Even with the cold-shooting first half, Forrest City was only down eight at the half, 23-15.
"That's the amazing thing," said Mustang Coach Dwight Lofton. "As badly as we shot the ball and we were still in the game at halftime. We didn't change anything at the half. All of the shots we took in the first half were good shots. I felt like our guys were playing against themselves rather than playing Mountain Home and that's what I told them at half. Our ball movement was terrible in the first half. We started moving the ball in the second half and everyone started getting their touches."
Forrest City hit 25 of their 35 shots from the floor in the second half.
The Mustangs put together a 17-to-4 run early in the third period to lead 32-27 with 2:19 to play after a slam by senior guard Kerry Evans.
Forrest City led by six, 36-30 to start the fourth period and quickly pushed their lead to 40-30 and 50-37 by the time they reached the four minute mark.
Evans scored the next six points, off a spectacular two-handed dunk and two field goals to put Forrest City up 59-39 with 2:30 to play.
Melvin Lowe's long three from the corner set the final score as the Mustangs ended the game with a 12-to-2 run.
Lorenzo Spearmon led the Mustangs with a quiet 21 points while Evans finished with 20, 16 of that in the second half while Nick Grady added nine, Buck Braddock added eight, six of that in the fourth period before fouling out and Sherman Allen added seven.
Zack McGrath led Mountain Home with 15 points while Cody Jarrett finished with seven.
Should the Mustangs defeat Jonesboro Tuesday and get the tie-breaker for the fourth seed into the state tournament, the team would face Ed Dorado, the No. 1 seed from the AAAAA-South in the first round of the tournament, Wednesday, March 5, at 2:30 p.m.
The Mustangs have an outside shot at the third seed, in which case they would face either Conway or Little Rock Parkview in the opening game, Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
The Forrest City Mustang baseball team is scheduled to open Tuesday at the West Memphis Invitational, weather permitting.
The tourney, set to open today, was pushed back a day because of heavy rain on Sunday.