By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
It's a long way to go just to play a basketball game.
The Forrest City Mustangs and Lady Mustangs left at 10 this morning to make the very long drive to Mountain Home, where they will meet the Bombers for a pair of AAAAA-East Conference games tonight.
Not only is it a long drive to Mountain Home (and that's with a stop over at Batesville for lunch) it is also a tough place to play.
"They (Mountain Home) have slayed a lot of dragons up there," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "I hope we're not the next victims."
To avoid becoming Mountain Home's next victim, the Mustangs will have to end the current three-game conference losing streak.
And the team will have to find some offense. Tuesday, the Mustangs shot just 29 percent from the field in a 70-44 loss at Blytheville.
While Lofton says it will be cold in the north hills of Arkansas, he hopes his team can heat up the inside of Bomber Arena.
"We have played several hungry teams this year already and lost," Lofton said. "Tonight, we need to be the team hungry for a win."
It could be an interesting game based on the following: the Mustangs defeated Cabot at Cabot, Cabot lost at Mountain Home, Searcy went to Forrest City and won and then Mountain Home travelled to Searcy and won.
"After all that, tonight will be very interesting," Lofton added.
Lofton's Mustangs are 4-10 overall and 1-3 in the conference. Mountain Home is 6-9 overall and 2-3 in the league.
Meanwhile, the Lady Mustangs are coming off a huge win over Blytheville Tuesday in which the team put up 82 points, the most ever scored by a Lady Mustang team under third-year coach Sue Jayroe.
The Lady Mustangs are 8-9 overall and 2-2 in the league, locked in a four-way tie for third place behind West Memphis and Cabot.
Forrest City has beaten Cabot and Blytheville in conference while losing to Searcy and West Memphis.
Mountain Home, 9-7 overall and 2-3 in conference, has beaten Jacksonville and Searcy and lost to Blytheville, Cabot and West Memphis.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Forrest City Blue Mustangs pushed their season mark to 9-3 overall and 5-3 in the AAAAA-east with a 75-53 victory over West Memphis East Thursday.
The 75 points was the most scored by the Blue team this season.
Michael Alston led a trio of Blue Mustang players in double figures with 19 points. Larry Bean finished with 11 and Cordero Allen added 10. Stephone Weaver was held to nine points while Marcus Britt added six.
"We started a little sluggish," said Blue Coach Jimmy Williams. "We hadn't played in 10 days going into the game."
Forrest City led 14-9 after one period and 31-19 at the half. The Blue Mustangs ended the game by outscoring East 22-to-11 in the fourth period.
The Blue Lady Mustangs lost to the East girls 47-23 and the Forrest City eighth-grade girls lost 37-6.
Forrest City will play at home Monday for the first time since Jan. 9 when they host West Memphis Wonder.
RUSTON -- Erica Smith scored a career-high 23 points and Cheryl Ford added 15 points and a career-high 20 rebounds to lead 11th ranked Louisiana Tech to a 75-62 win over Tulsa Thursday night before 3,284 fans at the Thomas Assembly Center.
The win by Tech propelled the Lady Techsters (13-2, 6-0) into sole possession of first place in the Western Athletic Conference while Tulsa (10-7, 5-1) dropped its first league game of the year.
Smith, from Palestine, had a previous career-high of 19 points. The 5-10 sophomore ignited the Tech second half comeback.
With the Lady Techsters leading 52-50 at the 10:47 mark of the game, Smith hit back to back three-pointers and then fed Amber Obaze for an easy lay up for a 60-52 lead.
"Erica has been struggling offensively, and she knows she has been struggling offensively," Tech Coach Kurt Budke said. "She has been putting in a lot of time and shots after practice and we knew she was going to break out of it. She picked a good night."
Tulsa used a big first half by senior guard Allison Curtin, who entered the game as the league's top scorer, as the transfer scored 18 first stanza points to give the Golden Hurricane at 39-35 halftime advantage.
For the second straight game, Tech started out strong, building an early 9-0 lead less than three minutes into the contest.
Tulsa answered with its own 9-0 run and the two teams exchanged the lead 11 times before the halftime buzzer sounded with the Golden Hurricane leading 39-35.
Tech outrebounded Tulsa 58-35 for the game with Ford's 20 and Amisha Carter's 12 boards leading the way.
The Lady Techsters return to action Saturday night when they host Rice at 7 p.m.
FIU 72, ASU 62
In a Sun Belt Conference game played at Jonesboro, Florida International stopped the ASU Lady Indians 72-62 Thursday night.
Four FIU players scored in double figures as the Golden Panthers improved to 13-5 on the year and 4-1 in the Sun Belt.
ASU All-America candidate Jolie McKeirnan finished with 16 points while Catriece Webster came off the bench to score 15, and Casie Lowman added 13 points.
ASU will host the University of New Orleans Jan. 30, at 7:05 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Dulin's Sports Academy, of Memphis, will conduct a preseason youth baseball and softball clinic at East Arkansas Community College (EACC) in March.
The baseball clinic will be held Saturday, March 8, in two sessions: ages six to eight, from 9 a.m. until 12 noon and ages 9 through 12, from 1 until 4 p.m.
The softball clinic will be held Saturday, March 15, in two sessions; ages six through eight from 9 a.m. until 12 noon and ages nine through 12 from 1 until 4 p.m.
The clinic will help teach the fundamentals of throwing, batting, base running and fielding.
Fee for both camps is $40 per camper per camp and is payable to EACC. Each camper will receive a free t-shirt.
For more information about either camp, call EACC at (870) 633-4480 ext. 261 or 333.
* PREP BASKETBALL
Thursday's Scores
Senior Boys
Bay 47, Riverside 44
Biggers-Reyno 78, Williford 49
Delaplaine 53, Armorel 30
Lynn 61, Ridgefield 46
Pocahontas 60, Hoxie 45
Rivercrest 59, Trumann 50
Senior Girls
Armorel 57, Delaplaine 47
Biggers-Reyno 73, Williford 41
CRA 70, Rector 54
Gosnell 50, Harrisburg 43
Highland 66, Westside 38
Hoxie 47, Corning 33
Lynn 53, Ridgefield 20
Manila 45, Osceola 40
Marmaduke 60, Bay 46
Maynard 57, BIC 23
Piggott 51, Brookland 39
Rivercrest 68, Trumann 29
Riverside 55, Walnut Ridge 23
Valley View 59, EPC 39
Junior Boys
GCT 64, Newport 24
Pocahontas 41, Hoxie 21
Riverside 41, Bay 23
Junior Girls
BIC 33, Maynard 27
Biggers-Reyno 47, Williford 16
Delaplaine 55, Armorel 18
Harrisburg 30, Gosnell 28
Highland 37, Westside 27
Hoxie 31, Corning 26
Marmaduke 37, Bay 28
Paragould 27, Beebe 15
Rector 38, CRA 24
Riverside 37, Walnut Ridge 34
Valley View 40, EPC 29
Friday, January 24
AAAAA-East
Forrest City at Mountain Home
Blytheville at Cabot
Searcy at Jonesboro
WMemphis at Jacksonville
3AA-South
Hughes at Cross County
Crawfordsville at Parkin
Earle at Marked Tree
Turrell - Open
6AA
Altheimer at Marvell
Clarendon at Barton
Elaine at Gillett
Non-Conference
Palestine-Wheatley at DeValls Bluff