By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Both Forrest City's Dwight Lofton and Sue Jayroe would just as soon forget last week.
Lofton and Jayroe watched as the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs lost twice in AAAAA-East Conference play -- on their home floor at Mustang Arena.
Last Tuesday both teams lost to West Memphis and on Friday, both fell to Searcy.
This week, Forrest City takes to the road -- to Blytheville tonight and to Mountain Home on Friday.
Both Forrest City squads are sitting at 1-2 in the conference and can ill-afford two road losses this week which would seriously damage postseason hopes for each team.
Lofton's Mustangs need to find a cure for the lack of point production while Jayroe's Lady Mustangs, (7-9, 1-2) need to find a cure for the team's season-long inconsistency from game to game.
In four of the Mustangs' nine losses, Lofton's team has been held to less than 50 points.
The Mustangs (4-9, 1-2) have dropped four games by less than 10 points and lost five by 10 or more -- the team's worst defeat coming against West Memphis, a 22-point margin.
"We don't have that one player this year, that one big gun who can step up and get the points when we need them," Lofton said. "We have some kids who are playing hard but only one or two who can get to double figures. We have a lot kids who are getting five, six, seven points, but we need more than that. For us in conference play, it's like taking a B.B. gun into a full-fleged gun battle."
Jayroe's Lady Mustangs have not won more than two games in a row this season, but have suffered through one three-game losing streak.
The Lady Mustangs are 1-5 in the six previous meetings against the Lady Chickasaws and have not won on Blytheville's home court under Jayroe's guidance. The two teams split home victories last year.
"Blytheville is hard to beat on their home floor," Jayroe said. "We have the right people on the floor at the right times. They have to decide if they are going to make the plays to win the games."
Blytheville is 8-8 overall and 2-1 in the league headed into tonight's game.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
First-year Palestine-Wheatley coach Lanny Allen has his Lady Patriots riding high on top of the 6AA Conference girls' standings.
The Lady Patriots held off a determined Altheimer team Friday 43-41 to improve to 8-6 overall but more importantly, 5-0 in the league, as the team begins a four-game road trip tonight at Elaine.
Nikita Love led the P-W girls with 13 points while LaRhonda Bender and Libby Martin both added eight points. Brittany Flenory had five and Beth Varvil chipped in four.
Andrea Cooper's banked three pointer at the buzzer put the Lady Patriots up 31-28 to start the fourth period.
The Lady Patriots led by one point, 20-19 at the half.
"We didn't play extremely well Friday for several reasons," Allen said. "But we were able to make the plays at he end of the game to get the win."
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots dropped their game to Altheimer Friday, their second conference loss of the season.
Tonight's game at Elaine will tip at 5 p.m., when the Junior Patriots take the court.
On Friday, Tonisha Wynne scored 16 points and Keisha Stovall added 10 as the Junior Lady Patriots defeated Altheimer 34-9.
The Hughes Blue Devils will host Crawfordsville tonight at Blue Devil Gym.
The three-game set begins at 5 p.m., with a junior girls game.
In the first meeting of the year, at Crawfordsville, the Blue Devils used overtime to take an 86-81 win over the Tigers in the 3AA Conference game.
Hughes is 8-5 overall and 6-1 in the league after defeating Marked Tree Friday.
The senior girls will playfollowing the junior high game.
Hughes' Lady Blue Devils are 4-5 overall and 4-3 in the 3AA South.