Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Weather 'slam-dunks' area hoops

Mother Nature dumped a blanket of snow across Northeast Arkansas Tuesday, which 'slam-dunked' all high school basketball in the area -- including the Forrest City-Jonesboro matchup.

That game has been rescheduled for Thursday night at Jonesboro -- assuming, of course that the weather cooperates and at press time, that remains an unanswered question.

Another round of winter weather surged across the state Wednesday morning and the outlook for Thursday isn't much better.

The Forrest City Mustangs are still fighting for the No. 4 seed into the Class AAAAA State Tournament which begins next week at North Little Rock.

The Mustangs, in a tie with Blytheville in the league standings, must defeat Jonesboro to get there.

The Lady Mustangs can finish fifth in the conference with a win over Jonesboro.

Blytheville finishes out the season against Searcy, a team that has already clinched the No. 2 seed into the state tournament.

This week's games all have state tournament implications for both the boys' and girls' teams at Nettleton and JHS.

The Hurricane has already clinched a playoff spot, but seeding has yet to be determined. JHS could be third or fourth, depending on what happens in its final two games.

On the other hand, the Jonesboro girls are the third seed out of the AAAAA-East no matter if they win or lose their final game, Lady Hurricane coach Michelle Birdsong said.

"If we were to lose, then we'd be tied with Mountain Home and we beat them worse than they beat us," Birdsong said.

The weather is also making life hard for the schools hosting the Class A, AA and AAA regional tournaments this week.

The Class AAA Region 2 tournament at Newport was postponed Tuesday.

The Region 2 tournament schedule has been pushed back a day, tournament director Mark Whatley said.

"As of right now, we're looking at playing the finals on Monday," Whatley said. "If it happens again, we might be looking at Sunday."

Today's schedule at Newport includes Mountain View facing Corning in girls' action at 4 p.m., while Pocahontas plays Harrisburg at 7 p.m., in the other girls' game.

In boys' play, Cave City takes on Hoxie at 5:30 p.m., and Brookland meets Rivercrest at 8:30.

The Class AA Region 3 tournament at Newark, AA Region 4 tournament at Marmaduke and Class A Region 3 tournament at Weiner were all slated to begin today.

Marmaduke, however, is pushing the regional schedule back a day, according Superintendent Jerry McIntosh.

Both the Hughes senior boys and senior girls were slated to begin tournament today.

"I haven't been able to get in touch with the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA)," McIntosh said, "So I'm going to make the call. This is one of those things where we will have to make decisions on a day-to-day basis."

The revamped schedule will have the Hughes boys playing Thursday at 8:30 p.m. and the Hughes senior girls playing at 4 p.m.

The state tournaments are slated to start Tuesday, March 4.

The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots were scheduled to open play today at the Class AA Region 6 Tournament at Harding Academy in Searcy.

Efforts to contact tournament director Bill Barden were unsuccessful Wednesday morning, but P-W's Larry Devasier said the chances of playing today were "not good."

The Palestine-Wheatley senior boys were scheduled to open play on Thursday.

Like the Region 4 tournament in Marmaduke, the Harding Academy regional will probably be pushed back a day as well.

"I don't really look for us to get many, if any, of the regional games in today either," Jimmy Coats, AAA executive director said. "Things are pretty bad down here in the central part of the state."

The only time winter weather forced the postponement of a state basketball tournament was last year at the Class AAAA tournament in Fort Smith, Coats said.

"We've never had this type of situation in my 19 years here," Coats said. "Our plans right now are if they can't play tomorrow, we'll just finish on Monday. If we end up having to play through Tuesday, we'll just back the state tournament up a day.

"Our main focus is just to get finished before March 13, which is the Thursday before the state finals are scheduled to start in Pine Bluff," Coats added. "We're going to meet tomorrow (Wednesday) and discuss all the different scenarios."

McIntosh recalled an instance when the 1997 regional finals were postponed, after a tornado swept through Marmaduke.

"We postponed the finals that Saturday and played them on Monday," McIntosh said.

Nettleton's boys have also locked up a spot in the Class AAAA state tournament, but could finish as high as third by winning one of their last two games.

The Raiders have won six of their last seven.

The Lady Raiders can secure a postseason berth with a win at Beebe Thursday and a Paragould loss at Vilonia.

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