By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Even though the Cabot Panthers have not been a serious contender in the AAAAA-East for several seasons, Ronnie Tollett's team always make things entertaining.
Sometimes, a little too much -- especially when Forrest City is the opponent.
Cabot and Forrest City will write the next chapter of this rivalry tonight when the Panthers and Lady Panthers invade Mustang Arena.
It's homecoming and the two-game set begins at 6 p.m.
Mustang Head Coach Dwight Lofton has an 11-2 mark in games against the Panthers, since taking over the Forrest City boys basketball program in 1996.
Four of those games have been decided by less than 10 points with one overtime game thrown in for good measure.
"Anytime you take the floor against Cabot, it turns into an adventure," said Lofton. "The way I see things going into tonight is that the chase for a state tournament bid is still wide open. We need to take care of the teams like the Cabots, Blythevilles and Mountain Homes, especially Blytheville, who I think might be the key to us getting into the postseason."
A Mustang victory tonight would also move Forrest City up a notch in the conference standings.
Since taking the conference opening win over the Panthers, the Mustangs are just 2-5 since and have lost their last two games.
Tollett's Panthers are where they most usually are at this point in the season, languishing in last place in the conference standings.
Lofton's Mustangs are just a bit better, sitting in a tie for sixth place in the league with Blytheville.
On the girls' side, the Cabot Lady Panthers are always conference contenders and always begin the season knowing they will be involved in postseason play.
They owned the Forrest City girls until the 2000-01 season -- Sue Jayroe's first as head coach of the Lady Mustangs.
The Lady Mustangs defeated the Lady Panthers 77-69 on Cabot's home floor to end years of frustrating losses to Cabot.
Last season, the Lady Mustangs won again 61-58 at Mustang Arena and in the first meeting between the two teams last month, at Cabot, Jayroe's girls' won for the third time in five meetings.
Jayroe's Lady Mustangs have the potential and the ability to be conference contenders this season.
The Lady Panthers are holding fast to second place, having won six of their seven games since the conference-opening loss to Forrest City.
The Lady Mustangs fell to sixth place in the girls' standings following Tuesday's loss to West Memphis.
Both Forrest City and Cabot's girls own victories over Jacksonville and Blytheville and both have lost to West Memphis, the state's No. 1 team. The similarities end there.
The Lady Panthers own wins over Mountain Home, Jonesboro and Searcy while the Lady Mustangs suffered conference losses to those same three teams.
A repeat win over Cabot tonight, coupled with a Jonesboro win over Jacksonville, would leave the Lady Panthers in a tie for second in the standings and move Jayroe's Lady Mustangs up one notch into a possible tie for fourth, based on a West Memphis victory over Searcy.
"We have the talent to get another win over Cabot tonight," Jayroe said. "If my girls will play the way I know they can play. It takes heart and a lot of growing up."
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
With three games left to play in the regular season, the Forrest City White Mustangs improved their standing for the upcoming postseason conference tournament by taking down West Memphis East 59-48 Thursday at Mustang Arena.
It was the second straight win for the White Mustangs who are 3-12 overall and 3-8 in the AAAAA-East Conference, which has th team in sixth place.
The postseason tournament will be played at Blytheville, beginning Feb. 17.
The White Mustangs will finish out the year on the road playing at West Memphis Wonder Monday and at Jonesboro MacArthur Tuesday and Thursday.
Larry Summage led the White Mustangs with 13 points Thursday while Cameron Henderson finished with 11 points coming off the bench.
White Mustang coach Sonny Shields went with a small starting lineup that included Jarvis Palmer, Travis Holloway, Terrance Pendleton, Kiel Smith and Summage.
The five rolled to a 14-9 lead after one period.
By the half, with Henderson and Terrill Lee joining Palmer, Holloway and Summage, the White Mustangs led 31-17.
Forrest City used an 8-0 run to start the second period.
The second half belonged to Forrest City as the White Mustangs led 48-27 to start the final frame and then survived an 11-to-5 run in the fourth by East to post the win.
Lee and Holloway each added eight points while Palmer had six and Kelson Stewart had five.
Kealon McKinney led East with 18 points.
*In the junior girls' game, West Memphis East improved to 9-3 in the league using 14 points by Keena Brooks in a 44-21 win over the White Lady Mustangs.
Brooks scored 10 of her 14 points in the first period.
East led 16-7 after one period and 26-9 at the half, holding Forrest City White to just two points in the second period.
Jasmina Morton led Forrest City with six points while LaShunda Rogers had four and Tasha Mills, Dekesha Norris, Bethany Hines and Jasmine Phillips finished with two points each.
The Hughes senior boys and girls' teams will complete their regular season schedule tonight on the road at Turrell.
The Blue Devils clinched the 3AA-South Conference title Tuesday night by defeating Parkin 90-54, which makes tonight's game just the regular season finale.
Should the Blue Devils lose tonight at Turrell, it won't make any difference since every 3AA team has at least three losses going into tonight except Hughes, 10-1 in the league.
Turrell won the first matchup between the two teams, which was played at Hughes.
The 3AA South junior high district tournament begins next Tuesday
at Earle.