By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
PARAGOULD -- In what was a "loaded field", the Forrest City Lady Mustangs came up empty at the McDonald's Shootout girls' tournament played Thursday through Saturday at Paragould.
The Lady Mustangs entered the eight-team field Thursday at 4-2 and returned home from Saturday's final game in eighth place at 4-5, after losing all three games. Going into the tournament, the eight teams were a combined 44-12.
"Man, that was a tough tournament," said Forrest City Coach Jacky England. "Every team there was tough. I thought we played hard and played well. But most of the time, we were outmanned, especially Friday against Poplar Bluff. Those girls were really big and really physical."
Forrest City was making its second appearance in the tournament, now in its 12th year. It may be the team's final appearance.
"We may find another tournament to go to next year," England said. "I know they say losing to good teams builds character and maybe that's so. But I really like to win or at least be in a position to win."
The Lady Mustangs ended their stay on Saturday by facing Greenbrier in the seventh-place game.
For the entire 32 minutes, the game was as tight as it could be between the two. A brief two-minute surge by Greenbrier made the difference as the Lady Panthers edged the Lady Mustangs 60-57.
A 5-0 Greenbrier run by sisters Courtney and Sidney Stewart, was enough to snap a 35-35 tie and push the Lady Panthers over the edge.
Greenbrier led 21-14 after one period and 34-31 at the half after Forrest City used a 17-to-13 second period to slice into the Lady Panther lead, fueled by 10 points from Sequoria Grady.
The Lady Mustangs were still within two to start the fourth period, trailing 48-46.
Grady led all scorers with 30 points while Fareedah Washington added 11. Sidney Stewart paced Greenbrier with 26 points, 12 of that total coming in the first period.
Shari Rogers, with nine points, was named the player of the game for Forrest city.
Following a 47-35 loss to Paragould in Thursday's opening round game, the Lady Mustangs returned Friday for a return match against Poplar Bluff, Mo.
The two teams opened last year's tournament against each other with Poplar Bluff coming away with the 69-34 win.
Friday, Poplar Bluff used its size to take a 59-48 win over Forrest City.
Leading just 31-30 at halftime, the Lady Mules outscored Forrest City 18-10 in the fourth quarter.
Poplar Bluff player of the game Mac Nelson led the way early, dropping in four, three-pointers in the first half and finished with 14 points.
Forrest City was paced by Fareedah Washington, who earned player of the game honors with a 14-point performance, while Grady and Viveca Kimble finished with seven points each and Torrie Willis added six points.
Washington hit 11 of her game-high 14 points in the second period.
In other games played during Saturday's championship round, CAC landed the tournament championship by defeating Memphis Ridgeway 56-53.
Greene County Tech, the tournament's defending champions, finished third by taking a 40-25 win over Paragould and Poplar Bluff, Mo. nailed down the fifth place trophy with a 42-35 win over Jonesboro.
The Shootout Tournament MVP award went to CAC's Whitney Zachariason.
The All-Tournament Team included Grady from Forrest City as well as CAC players Allyson McDougald and Amanda Morris; Memphis Ridgeway's Lakendra Phillips and Carrisha Bolden, GCTech's Megan Hale and Brooke Eason; Paragould's Nikki Mitchell and Lori Dement; Jonesboro's Rachel Allison and Talya Haskins; Poplar Bluff's Kristen Ploetze and Tierra Johnson; and Greenbrier's Sidney Stewart and Courtney Stewart.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The smallest player on the floor got the biggest rebound of the game for the Calvary Christian Eagles Friday night.
Eighth-grade guard Seth Smith came up with the rebound to help the Eagles secure a 55-53 MACS conference win over Macon Road on the Eagles' home floor.
Smith's rebound came after his older brother, Kyle, a senior, missed two free throws with 15 seconds to play and Calvary leading 54-53.
After coming down with the rebound, Smith was fouled from behind and was awarded two foul shots with one second to play. He hit the first but missed the second. It didn't matter. Macon Road's desperation heave was well off the mark.
The free throw was Seth Smith's only point of the game and the win leaves Calvary at 5-3 overall for the year.
The senior boys game was the final one of Friday's four-game set against Macon Road.
The Calvary Junior Eagles held off Macon Road's junior boys 31-27; Calvary's junior girls downed Macon Road 29-22 and Macon Road defeated Calvary's Lady Eagles 55-37.
Calvary will play three road gams this week before breaking for the Christmas holidays.
In a game that changed momentum almost every quarter, the Eagles ended the first period in a 14-14 tie with Macon Road but fell behind 30-23 at the half.
Calvary took a 35-34 lead with 1:30 to play in the third period and held on for a 40-38 lead to start the final period using Kyle Smith's layup with five seconds to play for the cushion.
Macon regained a 47-42 lead with five minutes left in the fourth period before Kyle Smith took over by hitting a pull up jumper and two lay ups to get Calvary within one at 49-48 with 1:56 to play.
The two teams would swap one point leads until the 43 second mark when Sam Hoffman's two free throws put Calvary in front for good at 52-51.
Kyle Smith's layup made it 54-51 before Macon got back within one at 54-53.
Kyle Smith led Calvary with 26 points while Jason Cantrell provided 16 points before fouling out with six minutes to play in the game.
Hoffman finished with six while Aaron Austin added four points.
Earlier last week, the Eagles lost to Southwest Christian Academy in Little Rock 55-22.
Seth Smith did, however, throw in 14 points for the Junior Eagles Friday in Calvary's 31-27 win over Macon Road.
Ethan Weatherford added nine points for the Eagles while Taylor Neeley had three.
Calvary led 9-7 after the first period before Macon Road forced a 13-13 tie at the half.
The Junior Eagles (2-2) led 22-21 to start he fourth period.
In the girls' games Friday, Ashley Austin scored 19 points and Summer Hess scored eight to lead the Junior Lady Eagles past Macon Road 29-22.
After being tied at 6-6 to end the first period, Calvary took a 16-8 lead at the half.
Friday's win over Macon Road helped the junior girls get even for the year at 2-2 following Tuesday's 21-17 loss to Southwest Christian Academy.
Finally, the Lady Eagles fell to 4-4 for the year, losing twice last week, 40-32 to Southwest Christian Tuesday and 55-37 to Macon Road Friday night.
Macon Road led 11-7 after the first period and 25-15 at the half and continued to lead by double figures throughout the second half.
Meredith Borden led Calvary with 14 points while Hannah McMahand had 12 and Katie McNair finished with 10 points. The lady Eagles were 12 of 27 form the foul line.
Both Calvary Elementary Eagle teams will play today at Ridgefield in Jonesboro beginning at 4:30 p.m.
The Eagles and Lady Eagles will play Tuesday at Jonesboro-CHE while the junior high teams will travel to Pulaski Home Education School on Friday.
The Hughes Blue Devils stayed perfect in 6AA conference play Friday by taking a 75-56 win over Barton.
Despite a sluggish start Hughes led 17-14 after the first quarter, 41-29 at the half and 60-41 after three quarters of play.
In the fourth quarter both teams scored 15 points each.
Hughes (4-3, 3-0) got scoring from 10 different players with three reaching double digits. David Dowden led with 21, Marcus Washington had 11 and sophomore Kevin Brown with 10.
The Blue Devils pressured Barton into 23 turnovers but committed 21 themselves. Hughes finished with 15 offensive rebounds.
The Devils will next be in action on Friday as they travel to Gillett to play another 6AA game and then the schedule will offer up several non-conference games including East Poinsett County, Danville, Parkers Chapel, Wynne and Buffalo Island Central.
The Hughes Lady Blue Devils defeated Barton Friday night to improve to 2-1 overall and 2-1 in the 6AA conference.
The Hughes junior girls lost their game against Barton.
Hughes plays again Friday.
Forrest City's Masonic Lodge No. 198 will sponsor a Baseball Clinic on Saturday, Jan. 15, for boys and girls, ages eight through 14.
All proceeds from the clinic will benefit the Heart and Cancer Foundations.
The baseball clinic will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Mustang Athletic Complex and instruction will be provided by several area coaches, professional instructors as well as former and current baseball players.
Deadline to register for the clinic is Jan. 1, 2005. For more
information or to register, call James Horman at 870-633-9996.