By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BLYTHEVILLE -- Forrest City's Junior Mustangs will more than likely be the No. 2 seed into the AAAAA-East Conference tournament, which starts Monday at Mustang Arena.
The Junior Mustangs defeated Blytheville 65-45 Monday night to improve to 13-3 and 9-2 in the conference.
Jonesboro MacArthur leads the league at 10-1 and will complete their conference season tonight against West Memphis Wonder.
A win by Wonder and a Forrest City win over Annie Camp Thursday, could leave the Junior Mustangs in a tie with MacArthur for the league title.
"Blytheville was ready for us Monday," said Forrest City Coach Jimmy Williams. "We struggled until halftime and finally got things going in the third period."
The Junior Mustangs led 17-8 after one period and 32-18 at the half.
Stephon Weaver led Forrest City with 24 points and Marcus Britt finished with 16. Kelson Stewart added nine, Rylan Nimocks had eight and Terrill Lee finished with two.
*After trailing 27-19 at halftime, Annie Camp's boys outscored West Memphis 40-13 in the second half to take a 59-40 victory Monday night.
Murray Benton finished with 19 points for Annie Camp (11-6, 6-5 AAAAA-East), including 14 in the fourth quarter.
Forrest City will play at Annie Camp Thursday.
*Jeremy Thomas scored 16 points, and MacArthur's junior boys moved to 10-1 in the AAAAA-East conference with a 48-37 win over West Memphis East Tuesday night at MacArthur Gym.
Logan Nutt also contributed 14 points for MacArthur, which led 24-12 at halftime.
MacArthur plays its final game of the regular season tonight at West Memphis Wonder.
The Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs stayed close against Blytheville Monday but were unable to finish as the Junior Lady Chicks took a 44-37 win.
Fareeda Washington and Cassandra Jackson each finished with 10 points to lead Forrest City while Bookita Vaughn added eight and Matisha Dobbins had five.
Blytheville led 13-10 after one period and 22-17 at the half.
"We bever let ti get out of hand," said Forrrest City Coach jacky England, "We just couldn't get the big basket when we needed to."
The loss leaves the Junior Lady Muustangs at 6-10 overall and 2-9 in the conference standings.
"We are probably looking at being the sixth seed into the postseason tournament next week," England said.
Blytheville, at 7-4 in the conference, will be the No. 2 seed.
In other junior high girls games played Monday, Jonesboro Annie Camp defeated West Memphis West 36-34 and MacArthur defeated West Memphis East 32-23.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Forrest City Mustang basketball coach has never won a conference basketball game at Blytheville.
It is the only conference road trip that has kept Lofton behind the eight ball. He has earned victories at every other conference stop including former East members Sylvan Hills, Little Rock Mills and North Pulaski.
"0-7 there," Lofton said. "That's a stat I know well. It's one I sure would like to change."
In five conference road trips this season, Lofton's Mustangs are 2-3 but they are 6-5 in overall road trips.
Lofton gets another shot tonight. He knows Blytheville is ready and waiting.
In the first meeting at Mustang Arena in January, Lofton's Mustangs handed Blytheville its first conference loss, winning 62-60 on a last-second shot.
"They are definitely not going to be in a good mood," Lofton said. "They are in second place in the conference but they have three conference losses now and Jacksonville and Jonesboro and us are breathing down their necks."
The Mustangs, coming off a win at Cabot on Friday have five conference losses and do not need anymore. Having a chance to get to 5-5 tonight with a win over the Chicks, would go a long way in helping the Mustangs get back to North Little Rock next month for the Class AAAAA state tournament.
Lofton expects to employ the same pattern he used against Cabot.
"We will go with our big line up and then substitute as the game dictates or how we feel," Lofton said. "I expect sophomores Jarvis Palmer and Michael Alston, who saw significant playing time at Cabot, to play big roles for us tonight. But you never know who is going to step up and have a big game for us."
The chase for the league's top four playoff spots remains a five-team affair.
"Tonight is another of those crucial games for us," Lofton said. "Seems we play a lot of those."
Lofton also pointed to tonight's West Memphis-Jonesboro matchup as being crucial to the outcome of the conference race.
*The Forrest City Lady Mustangs came within an eyelash of puling the upset over Cabot Friday.
In three previous chances at Blytheville, Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe has one win on the Lady Chicks home floor.
The Lady Mustangs, at 2-7 in the conference, are playing for pride over their final five games and a win at Blytheville tonight would certainly be a confidence builder.
Three times in the fourth period against Cabot, the Lady Mustangs trimmed the lead to five points -- the last time at 56-51 with 1:30 to play -- but could get no closer.
An intentional foul called against Forrest City allowed Cabot's Brittney Goings two free throw chances. Goings hit both and Cabot retained possession which meant Forrest City had to start fouling with 45 seconds to play and trailing by seven.
"I could not have asked for a better effort from our girls," said Jayroe. "We had them (the Cabot coaches) on the edge of their seats. They knew we were there to win the game and that we were not going to go away."
In 15 road games this season, which includes three tournaments, the Lady Mustangs are 4-11 overall and in conference road games, the girls are 1-4.
The four-game set, which includes the JV girls and boys, begins at 4 p.m.
Forrest City will host Searcy Friday night.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
TURRELL -- Kendric Smith poured in 28 points and Katarrus Pony added 11 points to lead the Hughes Junior Blue Devils to a 54-18 win over Crawfordsville Monday in the 3AA South junior district tournament.
The tournament, being played at Turrell, continues tonight.
Sir Jonathan Freeman added seven points for Hughes.
The No. 3 seeded Junior Blue Devils will face either Earle or Marked Tree Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
In the other first-round junior boys game Monday, Parkin knocked off Cross County 55-50 and will face No. 1 seeded Turrell Wednesday at 4 p.m.
In the junior high girls' bracket, Cross County defeated Crawfordsville 39-30 and Marked Tree got past Parkin 41-18.
The No. 1 seeded Turrell girls will play Cross County today at 4 p.m. while the Hughes junior girls, seeded seventh into the tournament, will face No. 2 seeded Earle today at 6:30 p.m.
Palestine-Wheatley will play their final home game of the season tonight when they host Altheimer in a key 6AA Conference matchup at Patriot Gym.
The Altheimer Red Devils, at 21-1, are ranked first in Class AA and they are the defending Class AA state champions.
They downed the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots 69-48 in the first game played at Altheimer.
Tonight's game tips at 5 p.m., when the P-W Junior Patriots take the floor. The senior girls will tip at approximately 6 p.m.