By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
They saved the best for last.
Forrest City's Blue and White junior high basketball teams went head-to-head Thursday at Mustang Arena for the final time in regular season.
After three seasons of fielding two teams in football, basketball and track, the district will return to a one-team format in the fall.
That made Thursday's game between the two junior high teams the final installment. It was the third meeting between the teams this season and the Blue Mustangs and Lady Mustangs made it a clean sweep winning all three.
Stephon Weaver led four players in double figures with 19 points as the Blue Mustangs held off a fourth period White Mustang rally to take a 56-47 win.
The Blue Mustangs improve to 10-4 overall and 5-4 in the conference with five games left to play.
The Blue Lady Mustangs needed double overtime to put away the White Lady Mustangs 25-20. It was the first overtime game for the Blue girls in three seasons while it was the fifth overtime game in three seasons for the White Lady Mustangs, but the first two overtime affair.
Marcus Britt added 15 for the Blue Mustangs while Larry Bean and Michael Alston finished with 10 points each.
Freshman Patrick Maney, who transferred to Forrest City this season from Hughes, led the White Mustangs with 17 points. Larry Summage finished with 11 while Cameron Henderson and Jarvis Palmer had eight points each.
The Blue Mustangs led 19-7 after one period and it looked as if the rout was on. Led by Maney's six second period points and two layups by Palmer, the White Mustangs charged back to trail by just nine points, 28-19 at the half.
The Blue Mustangs opened the second half with a 12-to-2 run during which all five starters scored to push the lead to 40-21 with 2:30 left in the third period.
Again, it was maney who answered for the White Mustangs, scoring seven points in a 10-to-6 White run which included back-to-back threes from Maney and Travis Holloway.
Bean's three pointer at the buzzer left the Blue Mustangs with a 46-31 lead to start the final frame.
The White Mustangs, 1-12 overall and 1-8 in conference, cut the lead to six points twice in the fourth period, at 49-43 with 3:28 to play after a 12-to-3 run to start the period. The run was punctuated by a pair of long three-pointers by Summage.
The White Mustangs cut the lead to six again at 51-45 with 1:51 left on two free throws by Henderson before the Blue Mustangs closed out the scoring with a Weaver three and two free throws by Alston.
In other junior high boys' games Thursday Cody Pace and Ivory Richardson scored 13 points each to lead Jonesboro Annie Camp to a 61-33 victory over West Memphis East and West Memphis West opened up an eight-point led after three quarters and went on to a 41-34 victory over Jonesboro MacArthur.
The Blue Mustangs will play a make-up game tonight at Jonesboro Annie Camp and will host Jonesboro MacArthur Monday, Feb. 3, at Mustang Arena.
Fareeda Washington and Astrain Allen each scored nine points Thursday to help pace the Forrest City Blue Lady Mustangs past the White Lady Mustangs 25-20 in double overtime.
The two teams ended regulation tied at 18-18 on a buzzer shot by Jasmina Morton.
Neither team scored in the first overtime forcing the second in which the Blue Lady Mustangs outscored the White team 7-to-2, led by five points from Allen. The Blue girls ended the game by hitting 4-of-6 free throw opportunities.
It was the first time in seven head-to-head meetings between the two junior high teams in which extra time was needed.
It was the fifth overtime game in three seasons for the White Lady Mustangs. It was the first overtime game for the Blue girls in three seasons.
The Blue Lady Mustangs led 6-0 after one period but the White team used an 11-to-3 second period to lead 11-9 at the half.
They extended their lead to 15-9 in the third on a layup by Whitney Lowe and a basket by Tasha Mills.
The Blue girls battled back in the fourth, cutting the White lead to 15-14 on a free throw by Chari Agnew and took the lead at 16-15 on two free throws by Allen.
Washington's jumper made it 18-15 Blue with less than a minute to play before Morton scored the next three points to force the 18-18 tie with 17 seconds remaining.
The Blue Lady Mustangs, 5-8 overall and 3-6 in the conference, failed to get off a final shot as time expired.
The White Lady Mustangs are 3-10 overall and 1-8 in conference.
Forrest City Blue will travel to Jonesboro Annie Camp tonight for a make-up game.
In other junior high girls' games Thursday, Jonesboro Annie Camp kept their perfect season intact with a 36-35 win over West Memphis East.
Annie Camp is 15-0 overall and 8-0 in the league.
Jonesboro MacArthur held on to take a 44-40 victory over West Memphis West.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City and Jonesboro will see plenty of each other tonight at Mustang Arena.
The two teams will hook up for a rare four-game set today beginning at 4 p.m. which includes two junior varsity games and two varsity games.
Tonight's home conference game against Jonesboro could be as treacherous as their mascot name of the Hurricane would imply -- for both the Forrest City Mustangs and Lady Mustangs.
So far, in the AAAAA-East, the Jonesboro Hurricane have done most of their on-court damage on the road, posting league victories at Blytheville, Cabot and Mountain Home.
That knowledge has Forrest City's Dwight Lofton on his coaching toes.
Over the last six meetings between the two teams at Mustang Arena, Lofton's Mustangs are 2-4, the last win coming two season's ago.
The Hurricane held off Mountain Home 48-41 Tuesday night at Bomber Gym to climb right back into the AAAAA-East conference race, moving into a four-way tie for third with Forrest City, Blytheville and Searcy. All four teams are 3-3.
"For some reason we just seem to be a lot more comfortable and not real tense on the road and I don't know why that is," said JHS coach Barry Pruitt. "We really played well at Mountain Home in front of a tremendous crowd who were screaming and yelling. Our kids maintained their poise, got the win and we're right back in the conference race."
Lofton's Mustangs held off Jacksonville in a wild 83-74 overtime win Tuesday night.
"That win has to rank in the top five during my years here," said Lofton. "I let the kids enjoy it for a day, now we have to focus on Jonesboro. Any time we take the floor against them, we have to be at our best. It has been a good series and tonight's game shouldn't be any different than past years."
On the girls' side, a wounded and bleeding Jonesboro Lady Hurricane team comes limping into Mustang Arena tonight which makes them even more scarier than in past years.
The Lady Hurricane have lost three of their last four games and are in a tie for fourth place in the league with Forrest City, which makes tonight's game vitally important for Sue Jayroe's Lady Mustangs.
"A win for us tonight puts us in fourth all by ourselves," Jayroe said.
Forrest City is 2-2 in their last four games with both losses coming by a combined 11 points.
Tuesday, while Forrest City was keeping Jacksonville winless in the conference with a 74-50 home win, Jonesboro forced overtime against Mountain Home but fell short, losing 37-35 as the Lady Bombers slowed the tempo to a crawl.
"I think that really wore us out more than the way we
play because we stayed on defense a lot more than we normally
do," said JHS coach Michelle Birdsong. "Every game is
important in this league. You can't take one for granted."
The Cabot Lady Panthers host top-ranked West Memphis tonight in the AAAAA-East girls conference play at Cabot.
Cabot is 15-4 overall and West Memphis is 14-2.
In conference play, Cabot has one loss (Forrest City) while the Lady Blue Devils enter the matchup undefeated at 6-0.
Both teams have similar game plans and both tends to run a high-tempo game.
West Memphis is 10 deep with players that can make a difference.