By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CHARLESTON -- Intimidation could have been a factor as the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots took the floor against Charleston's Lady Tigers Monday at the Hug Chevrolet Classic.
The Lady Tigers, ranked second in Class AA, lived up to their billing by completely dominating the Lady Patriots 60-29 Monday night.
The tournament is being played at Charleston's new multi-million dollar arena, which has been compared to Alltel Arena in North Little Rock by those who have been there.
"Charleston is as good as they are advertised to be," said P-W Coach Lanny Allen. They shot the basketball extremely well and we didn't. They didn't miss many shots and we couldn't get into our offense."
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots suffered the same fate, losing to Charleston's Tigers by 15 in their opening round game Monday night.
The Lady Tigers opened a 19-4 lead after one period and went into cruise control for the rest of the game.
Kesha Stovall led the Lady Patriots with 14 points while Bernice Sparkman added eight.
Fallon Parker and Tonisha Wynne did not score.
"When those two don't give us any points, it hurts," Allen said, as the Lady Patriots slip to 6-2 overall for the year.
The Lady Patriots are scheduled to take on Hampton today at 1 p.m.
"We watched Hampton play Monday and I think we have a chance to rebound with a win over them today," Allen said. "If our girls show up and shake off the loss to Charleston. We have faced better teams than Hampton and teams not as good as Hampton."
The Patriots loss to the Tigers drops P-W to 5-3 overall for the year.
Palestine-Wheatley will play Danville today at 5:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Hughes Blue Devils improved to 7-2 for the year Monday by turning back Danville in their tournament opening game.
The Blue Devils will take on Parkers Chapel today at 2:30 p.m.
Parkers Chapel is ranked fifth in Class AA.
*The Forrest City Mustangs, 7-1 for the year, are ranked No. 8 in the first Arkansas Prep Hoops Class AAAAA rankings, released today. Jonesboro, the only other AAAAA-East team in the top 10, is ranked sixth.
North Little Rock is the top-ranked team.
Forrest City's Masonic Lodge No. 198 will sponsor a Baseball Clinic on Saturday, Jan. 15, for boys and girls, ages eight through 14.
The clinic will benefit the Heart and Cancer Foundations.
The clinic will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Mustang Athletic Complex and instruction will be provided by area coaches, professional instructors as well as former and current baseball players.
Deadline to register is Jan. 1, 2005. For more information
or to register, call James Horman at 870-633-9996.