BLYTHEVILLE -- In the first meeting, Forrest City won on a bucket at the buzzer.
Blytheville wasn't going to let that happen again Tuesday night at home.
The Chicks outscored the Mustangs 15-0 in the final 1:28 to cruise to a 71-48 AAAAA-East win.
David Williams and John Fowler combined for 26 of BHS' 32 fourth-quarter points, including a dunk each off steals in the final 40 seconds to frost the win.
Williams had 12 of his game-high 25 points in the final period, while Fowler overcame a two-point first half to put up 19 points, 14 coming in the final 8:00.
Blytheville held a double-digit lead most of the fourth, up 54-36 with 4:04 left on a steal and bucket from Williams. The Mustangs wouldn't go away, using a 12-2 run, including a pair of Lorenzo Spearmon treys, to pull within 56-48 with just under 2:00 to play.
Williams, who had four of Blytheville's six three-pointers, answered with an old-fashion three-point play with 1:28 to go, starting the big run.
"They did a good job of knocking down some big threes throughout the game," Forrest City head coach Dwight Lofton said. "Williams knocked down some early that they needed. The second half, they just continued to play aggressive and they did a good job on the offensive glass. It was physical on both sides. We had 18 offensive rebounds, we couldn't convert. That was the bottom line. They had 16 (offensive rebounds), but the difference was they were putting theirs back in. I was proud of my guys getting it down to eight at the end. Blytheville is solid, they played extremely hard. They'll be tough in the state tournament."
Blytheville head coach David Hixson said the score was not indicative of the type of game it was, pointing to defense and rebounding as keys to winning the physical contest.
"You are going to win games with your defense and rebounding, and I thought tonight we were a great example of that," said Hixson, whose team had just one fewer rebound (29) than Forrest City, drew two charges and forced 22 turnovers. "I thought our matchup zone slowed them down. We knew what set they would be in. The threes they hit were contested."
The Mustangs (12-10, 4-6 AAAAA-East), who shot better than 50 percent in the first contest, were held to 18 of 45 (40 percent) shooting Tuesday. Meanwhile, Blytheville (17-5, 7-3 AAAAA-East) was 27 of 46 (58.7 percent) from the field, including 6 of 11 from three-point land.
Williams supplied most of Blytheville's offense in the first quarter, knocking down a pair of threes and putting up eight points in the period for a 10-6 lead going into the second quarter.
Forrest City led 16-14 on a three-pointer from Chris Williams with 3:38 left in the second quarter. David Williams responded with a three, but the Mustangs countered with a deuce to lead, 18-17, the last advantage the Mustangs would have.
Doug Echols, who had seven points, six assists and four steals, drained a triple to give the Chicks a 20-18 lead. On the other end, 6-6 sophomore Chris Brown drew a charge on Forrest City's Cameron Henderson and dropped in a bucket on the ensuing possession, two of his seven points to go along with seven rebounds.
Blytheville led 26-20 at halftime, despite its leading scorer Fowler having only the two points. Forrest City got as close as 26-25 in the third, but Blytheville led 39-31 going into the final period.
Lorenzo Spearmon led the Mustangs with 19 points while Roy Lee Parker had 12. Chris Williams finished with seven and Henderson added four.
Blytheville is currently all alone in second in the conference behind West Memphis.
Blytheville snapped a six-game losing streak Tuesday night, thumping Forrest City 56-41 in AAAAA-East girls action.
Blytheville (9-13, 2-8 AAAAA-East) never trailed in the game, establishing a big lead in the first half and making it stand up the final 16 minutes.
The Lady Chicks had Forrest City (5-16, 2-8 AAAAA-East) in a 33-16 hole at halftime and extended it to 43-25 on a long jumper from Kenya Moore with 2:16 left in the third.
Blytheville took a 47-33 lead into the fourth quarter and led it dip under double digits just once.
Forrest City's Sequoria Grady trimmed the advantage to 47-38 on a three-pointer from the corner with 5:50 remaining.
Whitney Jones, who had a game-high 24 points, answered with a bucket-and-one to put the lead back over double digits for the rest of the game.
The closest Forrest City got the rest of the way was 11 points.
Back-to-back buckets inside by Krystal Harris broke a 4-4 tie with 2:37 left in the opening frame. Blytheville extended the lead to 12-4 with four transition points from Jones, who had 17 in the first half.
The Lady Chicks, who led 14-6 after one quarter, broke the game open in the second period behind Jones.
The 5-11 junior scored nine of Blytheville's first 11 points in the frame, part of an 11-1 run.
Jones' baseline drive with 4:00 left in the half gave BHS a 25-7 lead.
Forrest City cut it to 25-11, but Blytheville outscored the Lady Mustangs 8-5 the rest of the quarter to take a 17-point lead at the break.
Behind Jones, Harris had 11 points, Moore and Shunquetta Shade six each, Audra Williams five and Kim Brimlett four in the win.
Grady led Forrest City with 14 points, followed by Trina Wynne's 13.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
BLYTHEVILLE -- One streak came to an end Tuesday night while another continued.
Blytheville snapped a six-game losing streak Tuesday night, thumping Forrest City 56-41 in AAAAA-East girls action.
While the loss extended Forrest City's slide to four games the Lady Mustangs paid an even higher price when point guard Shari Rogers went down late in the game and lay motionless on the court for more than 10 minutes.
Rogers landed hard on her hip after going for an attempted blocked shot with 2:21 to play. She was taken to the local hospitals emergency room and examined. Rogers did return home with the team but as of Wednesday morning still had no movement in her hip.
"She has taken some hard falls this season," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "But that's because she has no fear. She is the smallest player on the floor for us and she usually takes on the biggest girl. Right now, it isn't looking good for her availability on Friday."
Rogers finished with eight points, four rebounds, two steals and four assists. Trina Wynne had 13 points and six rebounds while Sequoria Grady had 11 blocked shots, 14 points, six rebounds and was perfect from the free throw line before fouling out.
LaShundra Rogers added five points and had six rebounds.
Blytheville (9-13, 2-8 AAAAA-East) never trailed in the game, establishing a big lead in the first half and making it stand up the final 16 minutes.
The Lady Chicks had Forrest City (6-17, 2-8 AAAAA-East) in a 33-16 hole at halftime and extended it to 43-25 on a long jumper from Kenya Moore with 2:16 left in the third.
Blytheville took a 47-33 lead into the fourth quarter and led it dip under double digits just once.
Forrest City's Sequoria Grady trimmed the advantage to 47-38 on a three-pointer from the corner with 5:50 remaining.
Whitney Jones, who had a game-high 24 points, answered with a bucket-and-one to put the lead back over double digits for the rest of the game.
The closest Forrest City got the rest of the way was 11 points.
Back-to-back buckets inside by Krystal Harris broke a 4-4 tie with 2:37 left in the opening frame. Blytheville extended the lead to 12-4 with four transition points from Jones, who had 17 in the first half.
The Lady Chicks led 14-6 after one quarter and 33-18 at the half.
In an unrelated incident to Rogers' injury or the loss, the Lady Mustangs appear to have lost part-time starter Torrie Willis for the remainder of the season.
Forrest City will host Searcy Friday.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Altheimer appears to well on their way to defending their 2003 Class AA state championship.
Tuesday night, the Red Devils brought their high-flyin', long-range shooting, faster-than-a speeding-bullet, slamfest to Patriot Gym and cruised past Palestine-Wheatley 69-51.
Actually, it wasn't that close as the Patriots celebrated Senior Night by playing their final home game of the regular season.
Altheimer 22-1 overall and unbeaten in the 6AA Conference, led by more than 30 points for most of the second half which invoked the "mercy rule" to begin the fourth period and a continuous running clock.
Altheimer coach Cortez Lee subbed freely in the fourth period, leaving the reserves in the game as the Patriots used a 17-to-2 run to cut the Red Devils' lead from 67-34 to the 69-51 final.
Altheimer, ranked first in Class AA, trailed only once at 4-2.
A three by Brandon Patterson, a layup and a long three by James Rice helped jump-start a 10-0 Red Devil run which took the Altheimer lead to 17-5.
The Red Devils were off and running and never took one look in their rear view mirrors on the way to a 24-9 lead to begin the second period.
Too many turnovers and not nearly enough rebounds and poor free throw shooting by the Patriots led to a 28-point Altheimer lead at the half, 44-16.
The Patriots hit just 8 of their 27 chances from the foul line while Altheimer went to the free throw line nine times and hit four.
By the end of the third it was 64-34.
The Patriots were coming off three big conference road wins last week at Clarendon, Gillett and Barton. P-W slips to 10-8 and 8-3 in the league with one game remaining to be played, a Thursday night road game at Elaine.
Vince Jones led the Patriots with 13 points while Jessie Adams added 11. Jestin Tomblin, P-W's lone senior, finished with six points as did Curtis Allen. Antonio Leak and Osas Oyara added five points each.
Rice and Patterson each scored 19 points for Altheimer while Charles Moore added 13 and Lewis Evans finished with eight.
"Our goal is to get to the AA championship game to defend our state title," Lee said. "These kids are playing well and they are having fun. I don't have to do much coaching because they know what they have to do. I just let them run."
In games last week, the Patriots defeated Gillett 71-54 on Thursday, getting 16 points from Jones, 14 from Adams, 12 from Rashun Barnes and 11 from Allen.
Friday, at Barton, Adams scored 26 points to help lead the Patriots to an 87-67 win over the Bears. Jones added 19, Allen had 12 while Barnes finished with eight and Tony Huntley added seven.
Altheimer's only loss of the year came against East Poinsett County in tournament play before the Christmas holidays.
The Lady Patriots had only 11 points at the half and scored just 21 in the entire second half, losing to Altheimer 52-32 Tuesday.
The loss leaves Palestine-Wheatley at 5-16 overall and 4-7 in the 6AA Conference.
Altheimer led 8-7 after a slow start in the first period but moved out to a 21-11 halftime cushion.
Vanessa Cregggett led Altheimer with 15 points while Eugenia Thornton added 11.
Bernice Sparkman tossed in 13 points for the Lady Patriots while Tonisha Wynne had seven and Fallon Parker had four.
The Lady Patriots will close out the regular season Thursday at Elaine.
The 6AA junior and senior district tournament will begin Monday, Feb. 16, at Altheimer.
Altheimer made it a clean sweep Tuesday by putting away the P-W Junor Patriots 66-59.
Taylor Clark led the Junior Patriots with 20 points while Phil Hicks was a close second with 19. Blake Simmons added 11.
Altheimer led 20-16 after one period and 38-27 at the half.
The Junior Patriots closed the gap to trail by one, 45-44 to begin the fourth period, after outscoring Altheimer 17-to-7 in the third period.
The Junior Patriots will not play again until the district tournament begins on Monday.
The P-W Junior Lady Patriots will play their final regular season game Thursday at Elaine.
The three-game set tips at 5 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
TURRELL -- The Hughes Junior Blue Devils, seeded third into the 3AA South district tournament being played at Turrell, will face the Earle Junior Bulldogs tonight.
Hughes defeated Crawfordsville 54-18 Monday to advance to tonight's semifinal game while Earle put away marked Tree 54-27 Tuesday night.
Hughes and Earle will tip at 6:30 p.m. tonight.
The winner advances to Thursday's championship game to face either Turrell or Parkin.
In other games played Tuesday, the No. 1 seeded Turrell junior girls clipped Cross County 28-27 to advance to Thursday's championship game while Earle's junior girls ran past Hughes 34-7.
Earle faces Marked Tree tonight.
The 3AA South senior high district tournament begins Monday, Feb. 16, at Earle.
*The Jonesboro MacArthur Whirlwinds clinched the AAAAA-East conference championship Tuesday night with a 42-30 win over West Memphis Wonder in junior boys' basketball.
MacArthur completes a 15-2 season with a conference mark of 11-1.
Mac Arthur will be the No. 1 seeded junior boys team into next week's postseason conference tournament to be played at Mustang Arena in Forrest City.
*Anna Kaloghirou scored 13 points, but West Memphis Wonder prevailed against MacArthur 38-30 Tuesday night.
Wonder will be the top-seeded junior girls' team into the tournament next week at Mustang Arena.
The registration process for the 2004 Forrest City Recreation Department's youth baseball and softball seasons is in full swing and will continue through March 15.
Registration for the adult men's and women's softball leagues will begin on March 1 and those sign-ups will continue through April 2.
The youth baseball and softball fees are $15 per each child living in the Forrest City city limits and $25 per each child living outside the city limits.
Adult softball league fees are $350 per team. A $10 fee will be assessed for each out-of-town player on each team's roster.
The minimum age to participate in the adult women's softball league is 17.
Registration for either the youth or adult summer leagues can be made at the Forrest City Recreation Department, located at Forrest City City Hall.
For more information about any of the youth or adult leagues or other city recreation programs call Kenneth Taylor at 633-3667.