By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Sue Jayroe's bench is getting emptier with each passing day.
Jayroe's Forrest City Lady Mustangs will host a depleted Searcy squad tonight but will do so minus some players of their own.
The Lady Lions lost starting junior forward, 5-11 Laura Giezeman last week for the remainder of the season, to a ACL tear.
Since losing Giezeman, the Lady Lions have lost three straight conference games.
Jayroe will be without starting junior "everything" guard Shari Rogers tonight. Rogers was injured late in the Blytheville game Tuesday when she landed hard on the floor after going for a blocked shot. Rogers has a deep upper leg and hip bruise.
"She definitely is not available tonight," Jayroe said. "She is tentative for Tuesday's home game against Jacksonville."
Jayroe also lost part-time starter Torrie Willis for the remainder of the season and starting forward Viveca Kimble could play tonight, but won't start, due to disciplinary actions."
"I have a lot of holes to fill," Jayroe said. "After they lost Giezeman, I thought that really improved my chances for getting a win over Searcy. But now, I just don't know."
Jayroe's Lady Mustangs are 1-2 against the Lady Lions, since Searcy came into the AAAAA-East last season.
Tonight's three-game set begins at 5 p.m., when the JV girls take the floor.
The JV Lady Mustangs are coming off a 37-36 overtime victory at Blytheville Tuesday, led by Jasmina Morton's nine points and eight points each from Tasha Mills and LaShundra Rogers. Shardavia Davis' three pointer tied the game at 34-34 sending the two teams into overtime.
Meanwhile, the Mustangs survived a close encounter in the first meeting against the Lions, when they took a 58-54 victory at Searcy.
Since that game, Searcy has gone 2-5 and come into tonight's game riding a four-game losing streak and are essentially out of the running for a state tournament bid.
The Mustangs are 3-4 since the win over the Lions and remain very much in the hunt to return to the state tournament bracket for a second straight season.
Forrest City is 4-6 in the AAAAA-East standings and in fourth place behind West Memphis (10-0), Blytheville (7-3) and Jonesboro and Jacksonville (6-4).
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
ELAINE -- The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots will be the No. 3 seed into the upcoming 6AA district tournament, which begins Monday at Altheimer.
The Patriots lost to No. 2 seeded Elaine Thursday night 79-78 as Elaine hit the game-winning layup at the buzzer in the final regular season game for each team.
The panthers won the first meeting 78-75 at P-W.
P-W's troubles at the free throw line continued Thursday as the Patriots missed 24 chances.
Vince Jones led P-W with 27 points, Jessie Adams tossed in 20 and Curtis Allen had 10 points.
The P-W Junior Patriots will be the No. 2 seeded team into the district tournament, also being played at Altheimer next week.
*Bernice Sparkman scored 17 points Thursday to lead the Lady Patriots past Elaine 46-29 to make it a conference sweep over the Lady Panthers.
Cara Lansford added 13 points while Whitney Smith had seven, Tonisha Wynne had five and Fallon Parker scored four points but handed out 10 assists.
The Lady Patriots will be the No. 5 seed into the district tournament and will face Elaine in the first-round matchup.
*The P-W Junior Lady Patriots are the No. 2 seed into the district tournament.
The junior girls defeated Elaine 34-22 Thursday using 12 points from Chelsea Jumper and Deidra Ingram.
P-W will play Gillett in the first round of the district tournament.
The Forrest City Junior Mustangs wrapped up an outstanding junior high season Thursday night, ending with a 47-43 win over Jonesboro Annie Camp.
The Junior Mustangs end the regular season at 14-3 overall and 10-2 in the AAAAA-East Conference, good enough for second place.
Forrest City will be the No. 2 seed into the postseason conference tournament, which begins Monday at Mustang Arena, and will face No. 7 seed West Memphis West Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Jonesboro MacArthur, at 11-1 in the conference, will be the No. 1 seed. MacArthur's only loss of the season came against the Junior Mustangs.
Marcus Britt led Forrest City with 22 points while Kelson Stewart added 10 and Stephon Weaver had nine.
Annie Camp led until the three minute mark of the fourth period when the Junior Mustangs took a one-point lead helped by a defensive change.
"In the fourth period, we switched to a straight man defense," said Forrest City Coach Jimmy Williams. "That was the turning point for us."
Annie Camp led 32-29 to start the fourth period.
"Both teams played hard," Williams said, "I think we played harder in the fourth. We needed to win and we needed to win on the road."
Annie Camp's Murray Benton scored 18 points, but was held to just four points in the fourth period as Forrest City's Terrill Lee defended.
Lee dropped in four big free throws in the fourth to help the Forrest City cause.
Annie Camp led 14-8 after one period and 22-17 at the half.
Williams will be trying to get back to the conference championship game for the second straight year.
A year ago, coaching the Blue Mustangs, Williams' team got to the finals at Blytheville, but lost to West Memphis West 47-44.
"We should have won it last year," Williams said. "This time, the tournament is in our house and it would be a great way to cap the season."
Talya Anderson and Lauren Hall each scored eight points as Annie Camp held off Forrest City 31-29 in junior girls' basketball Thursday night.
Annie Camp finishes the season at 9-10 overall and 7-5 in the conference.
Annie Camp will be the fifth-seed into next week's conference tournament at Forrest City and will face West Memphis West in a first round game Monday, Feb 16., at 4 p.m. Annie Camp has won six straight games.
The Junior Lady Mustangs got 12 points from Fareeda Washington Thursday night.
Forrest City completes their regular season at 6-11 overall and 2-10 in the conference.
The Junior Lady Mustangs will be the No. 6 seeded team into the conference and will play second-seeded Blytheville Monday at 7 p.m.
"I wanted to play everyone Thursday and I did," said Forrest City Coach Jacky England.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The No. 3 seeded Calvary Elementary Eagles get a shot at the big one tonight when they take on top-seeded Central Baptist in the championship game of the postseason MACS tournament.
The game will tip at 6:30 p.m. at Calvary.
Calvary lost to Central twice in regular season, but head coach Jeff Myers likes his team's chances tonight.
"Our guys learned a lot in those first two games against Central," Myers said. "Central has a couple of big kids and we just have to have a solid defensive effort against them."
The elementary Eagles got to the title game by defeating Macon Road Baptist 33-20 on Monday.
Seth Smith led the way by scoring 18 points. Fletcher Myers helped out with eight points while William Burks had five and Cody Oliver had two.
Tuesday night, Calvary put down Ridgefield 46-33 with Smith scoring all but 10 of Calvary's points, finishing with 36 points, which broke the previous Calvary single-game scoring record of 35 points, held by Smith's older brother, Kyle. Myers again added eight and William Burks had two.
The elementary Eagles, 7-3 overall, rolled into the postseason tournament on a high note after defeated Macon Road on Saturday 43-30 and holding off Ridgefield 35-30 on Feb 2.
Smith had 18 against Macon Road while Burks had 14. Myers and Ryan Lee each had four points while Joshua Halford had two.
Against Ridgefield, Smith scored 28 points while Burks had four and Myers had three.
Tonight's championship game will be the final elementary game for Smith and Burks, who will move to the junior high ranks next season.
Calvary's elementary girls won their first-round tournament game against Thrifthaven of Memphis 39-31 but were eliminated from the bracket Tuesday, suffering a 33-15 loss to Central Baptist in the semifinals.
Against Thrifthaven, Katie Borden scored 12 points and Summer Hess had 10. Mary Burks added five.
In the loss to Central, Burks was held to four points and Hess had only three. Four Calvary players -- Kaitlyn Hill, Kriston Heard, Taylor Padgett and Borden -- each finished with two points.
The elementary girls completed the regular season on Saturday by defeating Macon Road 24-18, led by Padgett's eight points. Heard nd Burks finished with six points each while Hess and Borden had two each.
The Calvary Junior Eagles will open play next week in the postseason tournament at Central Baptist.
The Junior Eagles have not played since losing to Macon Road 30-10 last Thursday. In that game, Taylor Myers and Seth Smith each had four points.
The junior boys ended the month of January with a 45-28 loss to Macon Road in which Myers and Smith each scored 10 points while Nathan Myers added eight.
The Calvary Lady Eagles suffered three tough losses in recent weeks, losing to Macon Road 34-17, Southwest Christian 52-27 and Macon Road 66-30.
The Lady Eagles will open play in the postseason varsity tournament the week of Feb. 23-28, at Central Baptist.
In the loss to Macon Road, Hannah McMahand led the team with seven points while Meredith Borden had four, Katie McNair three and Amber Hart two.
Against SW Christian, Borden had eight, McNair seven, Danielle Howard six, McMahand four and Katie Hornbeak two.
Finally, in the loss to Macon Road on Feb. 5, Borden had 10 while McMahand added nine and Howard helped out with seven points.
Since Jan. 29, the Calvary Eagles have dropped five straight games.
The streak began with a loss 65-53 loss to Macon Road in which Kyle Smith had 20, Jason Cantrell had 11, Luke Myers had nine and Trey Baldwin had eight.
The Eagles played twice as Lord's Ranch and Grace Christian provided the homecoming competition.
Myers had 13 and Baldwin had 12 in a 58-46 loss to Lord's Ranch while Cantrell added 10 and Kyle Smith nine.
In a 56-52 loss to Grace Christian, Smith had 20 and Myers finished with 15. Cantrell added six, Baldwin four, Nathan Myers three, Josh Smith two.
Smith led the Eagles with 16 points in a Feb. 3 loss to Southwest Christian while Cantrell added 10. Myers added seven and Adam Hillis finished with three points.
The Eagles lost to Macon Road 61-51 last week and fell to Lord's Ranch last Friday 65-56.
Kyle Smith had 23 points in each of the two games. Luke Myers had 13 against Macon and 17 against Lord's Ranch.
The varsity post season tournament begins in two weeks at Central Baptist.