By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Friday's home against Little Rock Central was a game of scoring runs and Forrest City had the final one to take a 60-48 win at Mustang Arena.
Friday's win does two things, it gives the Mustangs the season sweep over Central and it gets the Mustangs to 5-1 for the year.
Holding a 42-39 lead in the fourth, Forrest City senior guard Sherman Allen changed the complexion of the game when he took a pass after a Forrest City steal and drove the lane for an Arena shaking slam dunk.
"That was the play of the game," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "That gave the momentum for the rest of the game."
Allen finished with eight points in the game. Sophomore Marcus Britt led Forrest City with 22 points while senior Chris Williams and sophomore Stephon Weaver added 10 points each.
Central jumped to a quick 7-3 lead in the first before Weaver's three from the corner and Williams' baseline layup put the Mustangs in front 8-7. Weaver would add another three and the Mustangs began to pull away to an 18-12 lead to start the second period.
They pushed their advantage to 32-19 at the half but cooled down in the third scoring only five points. It was still enough to hold a 37-31 lead to start the fourth.
"In the third, we had some turnovers and we missed a couple of easy shots while they got hot and closed the gap on us," Lofton said. "I knew Central would come in and play hard and they did. More than likely, that was a game that we probably would have lost last year. But this year these kids have developed a great fear of losing and do not want to be on the losing end."
Tyler Carl Lee led Central with 13 points while Tim Johnson added nine for the Tigers.
In the first meeting at Central, the Mustangs won 57-37.
In the junior varsity boys' game, Larry Bean had 17 points to help lead the Mustangs to a 44-40 win over Central's JV.
Michael Alston had four and Kellon Bowman five for Forrest City. The JV Mustangs led 11-6 after one period and 20-16 at the half before Central pulled even at 33-33 to end the third period.
Forrest City will play at Wynne Tuesday night.
*Wynne scored two free throws with seven seconds left in the game as the Yellowjackets edged England 36-34 Friday night in senior boys' basketball.
Lonnie Harris finished with 17 points to lead Wynne while Cedric Worthy had 17 points for England.
*Marianna led Trumann 24-3 after the first quarter and pulled away for a 74-31 win Friday night in senior boys' basketball.
Marianna led 50-17 at the half.
Desmond Sims led Marianna with 27 points and Myron Hall added 11.
For Trumann (3-3), Blake Wright finished with 10 points.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City's Lady Mustangs lost their shooting touch Friday night and eventually their game to Little Rock Central 54-41 at Mustang Arena.
Starting stone cold from the field, the Lady Mustangs hit only two field goals in the first period and fell behind 13-4 as the second period started.
By the half, Central led 26-15.
Forrest City falls to 3-2 for the year while the Lady Tigers improve to 6-3.
The Lady Mustangs were playing for the first time since Nov. 20 and it was the long layoff, according to Forrest City Coach Jacky England, that hurt his team.
"That won't happen again, if I have anything to say about it," England said. "We played four games in the first week of he season and haven't played since. We went almost two weeks without playing a game. We can't do that. We have to do a better job of scheduling. There is no way to develop any consistency when you aren't playing."
Central used a 16-to-9 run in the third period to lead 42-24 to start the fourth period.
The Lady Tigers did a lot of their damage from the foul line, hitting 15-of-22 free throws while the Lady Mustangs went to the foul line only 13 times and hit eight of those attempts.
Sequoria Grady finished with 19 points to lead the Lady Mustangs while Fareeda Washington had 15 and Viveca Kimble finished with five.
Shanelle Allen led Central with 14 points while Kia Wilbert and Dominique Smith each had 12 points for Central.
The Lady Mustangs will play at Wynne Tuesday night.
*K.K. Hodges led Wynne with 19 points in a 56-47 win over England Friday night in senior girls' basketball.
Also for Wynne (3-1), Chiquita Holmes had 13 points. For England, Sharnice Reed scored a game-high 19 points.
*Roshita Allen led Earle with 20 points in a 65-45 win over Turrell in the finals of the Turrell Invitational senior girls basketball tournament Friday night.
Shamika Delaney led Turrell with 20 points.
*Kailey Pinson scored 14 points off the bench, including 12 in the fourth quarter as Jonesboro held off Mountain View 66-56 in the championship game of the Searcy Bank Classic senior girls' basketball tournament Saturday.
Jonesboro (5-2) led 21-11 after the first quarter and led 32-23 at the half,
Rachel Allison then scored 8 of her 10 points in the third quarter as the Lady Hurricane led 44-37 after three periods.
Talya Haskins added nine points for JHS while Alyssa Edens chipped in 7 and Jade Plunk and Jordin Coleman 6 each.
Jonesboro defeated Lonoke 54-38 Friday in the semifinals.
The Lady Hurricane returns to action Thursday at 8:30 p.m. against Central Arkansas Christian at the McDonald's Shootout in Paragould.
The Lady Mustangs will play Paragould at 5:30 p.m.
JONESBORO -- Jonesboro broke open a tight game, fueling a second and third-quarter spurt behind its man-to-man defense and rolled to a 65-50 victory over Memphis Trezevant in the finals of the 20th Annual KFC-Taco Bell-Pepsi Hurricane Classic Saturday at Hurricane Gym.
Senior Ryan Williams scored 16 points and earned tournament MVP honors for the second straight year as JHS claimed back-to-back titles and its 10th Hurricane Classic overall.
In other action Saturday, Brandon Ballard scored 35 points as Buffalo Island Central raced past Overton, Tenn. 94-75 for third place, Greene County Tech claimed fourth place with a 59-53 victory over Hughes and Earle captured seventh place, outlasting Paragould 86-73 in overtime.
Jonesboro (4-0) reached the finals by taking a 50-44 semifinal win over Buffalo Island Central Friday night.
*Skyler Bowlin and Kirk Porter each scored six points in the first quarter as the Eagles raced out to a 24-11 lead, then held off Hughes 59-53 to earn fourth place.
Porter, a 6-5 sophomore, scored 16 points, Josh Turner added 10 and Bowlin 8 for GCT (6-2). The Eagles led 34-26 at the half and 49-42 after three periods.
Marcus Washington led Hughes (2-2) with 13 points while David Dowden added 11.
*The Blue Devil defense had five steals and held Paragould to just 20 percent shooting in the third quarter, pushing a 20-19 halftime lead to 34-26 after three periods which led to a 51-42 win.
Kevin Brown led Hughes with 15 points, including 11 in the second half, while David Dowden added 12 points.
Hughes was given the tournament's sportsmanship trophy.
Kyle Birmingham led Paragould with 10 points .