By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
What happened Monday night at Mustang Arena has been a long time coming. A very long time.
Bolstered by a career-best 20 points from Astrin Allen, the No. 6 seeded Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs upset No. 3 seeded Jonesboro MacArthur 53-43 in the first round of the AAAAA-East conference tournament.
It was the first postseason victory for a Forrest City junior high girls basketball team in more than 10 years and that includes the three seasons (2000-03) in which Forrest City fielded two junior girls' basketball teams.
The Junior Lady Mustangs accomplished another goal Monday. The 53 points was the most scored by the team this season. The previous high was 44 points in a win over West Memphis East. Monday's victory was only the fifth home win of the year for the junior girls. who improve to 7-11.
More importantly, the Junior Lady Mustangs advance to Thursday night's semifinal game.
"We shot the ball well and we played well defensively," said Forrest City Coach Jacky England. "We rebounded as well as we have all year and we hit our free throws at the end. If we can play that way Thursday we can be in Friday's finals."
The Junior Lady Mustangs knocked down three, threes in the first half which helped secure a 23-14 lead at the half.
And while England felt good at that point, there was still reason for concern.
"The girls were very excited at the half, as you can imagine," England said. "We haven't been up that much on very many teams at the half this season -- we have not been up eight or 10 points against a good team. I was trying to calm them down because the game was far from being decided."
MacArthur made up some ground in the third, using a 6-2 scoring run in the final minute to cut Forrest City's lead to 34-27 to start the fourth period.
Forrest City pushed their lead back to 17 points midway through the fourth using a three by Allen and back-to-back layups by Matisha Dobbins and Bookita Vaughn to lead 44-27.
MacArthur answered with a 6-0 run to make it an 11-point game at 44-33 and followed that with a 7-0 run to get within five points at 45-40.
"I knew they would make a run," England said. "I told my girls to expect it, but they still weren't ready and MacArthur got within five points quick."
After a time out, MacArthur used a free throw to get within 45-41 before Forrest City dropped in six free throws pushing the lead back to 51-41 with 40 seconds to play.
"Those free throws were big," England said. "Especially since we were not accustomed to having a big lead that late in the game. But, MacArthur was in a situation they were not used to being in at that point as well --being behind and not being able to score."
England added that his junior girls were excited before the game because they were playing on their home floor in front of a home crowd.
"That in itself, was worth some points," England said.
In Thursday's semifinal game, Forrest City will face the winner of Wednesday's Blytheville-West Memphis East game at 6:30 p.m.
Of Allen's 20 points, eight came in the final period. Vaughn had 13 points while Fareeda Washington finished with 11 (six of that total in the fourth period). Dobbins finished with seven points.
MacArthur's Anna Kaloghirou finished with 10 points as did teammate Dominique Anderson.
*In other conference tournament games played Monday, the No. 4 seeded West Memphis West girls edged fifth-seeded Jonesboro Annie Camp 28-27 to advance to Thursday's semifinal game against No. 1 seeded West Memphis Wonder.
In girls' games on Wednesday, Blytheville and West Memphis East will play at 5:30 p.m.
In the lone junior boys game played Monday, fourth-seeded Jonesboro Annie Camp got past fifth-seeded West Memphis East 44-40.
Annie Camp faces No. 1 seeded Jonesboro MacArthur Thursday at 5 p.m.
In Wednesday's boys games, No. 3 seed West Memphis Wonder plays
sixth-seeded Blytheville at 4 p.m. and No. 2 seeded Forrest City
takes on No. 7 seeded West Memphis West at 7 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
For Forrest City's Dwight Lofton and Jacksonville's Jerry Wilson, tonight's game scenario is complicated yet as simple as ABC.
Both teams are fighting for their postseason and state tournament lives. The winner moves on, the loser will be nothing more than a spectator come March 2.
In the past seven seasons under Lofton, the Mustangs' state tournament hopes -- more often than not -- have been decided against Wilson's Red Devils.
In the past, Each have ended the other's dream of playing on past regular season.
Tonight will not be any different as the Red Devils roll into Mustang Arena.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs and Jacksonville Lady Red Devils will kick things off at 6 p.m. There is no junior varsity game scheduled.
Lofton's Mustangs are 5-6 in the AAAAA-East standings while Jacksonville is 6-5.
"The bottom line for us is we have to win, period," Lofton said. "And we need to win by at least six points. Seven or more would be ideal. If we can do that and then beat Mountain Home Friday, we can start looking forward to going back to North Little Rock for the state tournament. If we win tonight by less than six points, we have to win out against Mountain Home and Jonesboro. If we lose tonight, it's over."
As always, there are all of the tie-breaking measures in place, just in case it comes down to that, and it could.
Jacksonville has a leg up already, having defeated the Mustangs in the first meeting 60-54 at Jacksonville.
Of course, Lofton says the best scenario is to "to win our final three games."
After tonight, the Mustangs go to Mountain Home and finish next Tuesday at home against Jonesboro.
Jacksonville, one game ahead of everyone else, will finish their season by hosting unbeaten West Memphis on Friday.
For Sue Jayroe's Lady Mustangs, tonight's game is equally important, even though neither team remains in the running for postseason.
The Lady Mustangs are 2-9 in the conference while Jacksonville is 1-10.
In the first meeting, at Jacksonville, Forrest City needed two overtimes to secure an 80-75 victory over Jacksonville.
"I hope it doesn't take as long tonight," Jayroe said.
Starting junior guard Shari Rogers, who missed Friday's game against Searcy, is expected to be back in the line up after suffering a hip injury against Blytheville.
"Shari practiced Monday and she says she will be ready for tonight," Jayroe said. "If she says she can play, then she will, but we have to try and protect that hip."
Additionally, Viveca Kimble returns to the starting lineup tonight, after being used off the bench against Searcy.
And then there's Deandria Washington, who started against Searcy and finished with a solid effort and 10 points.
"Deandria played very well Friday and she will be on th
floor tonight for us," Jayroe said.
The Calvary Christian Junior Eagles, seeded fourth in the MACS Junior High Conference Tournament, eased into tonight's second round with a 42-26 win over Faith Heritage Monday.
Nathan Myers led the Egales with 19 points while William Burks and Seth Smith each scored six and Ethan Weatherford and Chad Phillips had two points each.
The Junior Eagles will take on No. 1 seeded Westminster tonight at 7:15 p.m., at Central Baptist.
In other games Monday night, the Calvary Christian Junior Lady Eagles lost their first-round game against Westminster 14-12.
Elaine ended the season for the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots Monday night, taking a 63-52 win in the first round of the 6AA District Tournament at Altheimer.
"They (Elaine) didn't miss," said P-W Coach Lanny Allen. "They hit everything they shot and we didn't."
Bernice Sparkman led P-W with 21 points while Fallon Parker helped out with 17 points.
The Lady Patriots defeated Elaine twice during the regular season and were seeded fifth going into Monday's tournament game.
Tonight, the No. 2 seeded P-W Junior Lady Patriots will take on No. 7 seeded Gillett at 4:30 p.m. at Altheimer while the P-W Junior Patriots, also seeded second, will take on Seventh-seeded Gillett at 5:45 p.m., as the junior boys tournament gets underway.
The P-W Patriots will play Thursday at 8:15 p.m.