By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Marcus Britt burned West Memphis West for 23 points Wednesday to help lead the Forrest City Junior Mustangs to a 59-42 win in the AAAAA-East Junior High District Tournament being played this week at Mustang Arena.
It was the third meeting between the two teams this season and the Junior Mustangs own all three victories.
Forrest City improves to 15-3 for the season.
Britt grabbed 10 rebounds to finish with a "double-double" in the game. Teammate Stephon Weaver finished with 18 points and had eight rebounds while Kelson Stewart added seven points and Terrill Lee helped with four.
The Junior Mustangs will face West Memphis Wonder in the second of two boys semifinal games tonight.
Top-seeded Jonesboro MacArthur will take on Jonesboro Annie Camp in the first semifinal while the No. 2 seeded Junior Mustangs No. 3 seeded Wonder will follow at 8 p.m.
Tonight's two winners will play for the district tournament title Friday at 6:30 p.m.
The Junior Mustangs are trying to get back to the district final for the second straight year. Last year at Blytheville, West defeated the Blue Junior Mustangs to win the district title.
Forrest City took a while to get started Wednesday against West, going almost the first four minutes of the game without scoring.
They found their touch and led 9-2 to begin the second period. They pushed their lead to 26-15 at the half.
By the end of the third period, the Junior Mustangs were in control 45-26.
Britt opened the final frame with back-to-back field goals to make Forrest City's lead a 21-point cushion at 49-28.
Forrest City cruised the remainder of the way with Stewart adding a soft dunk and fast-break layup late in the period.
West used long range shooting, hitting six threes in an attempt to stay close but the Junior Mustangs answered each West bucket with one of their own.
In the other boys game played Wednesday, West Memphis Wonder held off sixth seeded Blytheville 23-20 to advance to tonight's semifinal game.
And in the lone girls game played Wednesday, No. 2 seeded Blytheville got past West Memphis East 32-29 to advance to tonight's semifinal game against the No. 6 seeded Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs.
That game will be played at 6:30 p.m.
West Memphis Wonder and West Memphis West will play the first girls' semifinal game at 3:30 p.m.
The two winners advance to Friday's championship game which will tip at 5 p.m.
Forrest City defeated No. 3 seeded Jonesboro MacArthur 53-43 Monday in the first-round game for each team.
In the 6AA District Tournament being played at Altheimer, the No. 2 seeded Palestine-Wheatley Patriots open play tonight against Marvell.
The Patriots were given a bye past the first round.
Tip off is scheduled for 8:15 p.m.
Palestine-Wheatley defeated Marvell in both regular season conference matchups.
A win tonight would put the Patriots into Friday's semifinal game against either Elaine, a winner over Gillett Wednesday.
The Palestine-Wheatley Junior Patriots and Junior Lady Patriots will play semifinal games in the district tournament Friday night.
The Junior Lady Patriots will face Elaine at 4:30 p.m. while the Junior Patriots will face Clarendon at 5:45 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Hughes Lady Blue Devils will play at least one more game.
The Lady Blue Devils, seeded fourth into the 3AA South district tournament being played at Earle High School this week, will wear the No. 4 seed into next week's Region 4 Tournament at Marked Tree.
The Hughes girls are making their second straight trip into regionals.
A year ago, the Lady Blue Devils were the fourth seed into the regionals but lost to Marmaduke in the first round game played at Marmaduke.
Monday night at Earle, the Hughes girls defeated Crawfordsville before losing to top-seeded Turrell on Tuesday.
The Hughes boys ended their season Monday with a first-round loss to Crawfordsville at the district tournament.
Meanwhile, Marked Tree and Earle will meet in a boys' semifinal game tonight with the winner advancing to face Turrell in Friday's 7:45 p.m. final
The Earle and Marked Tree senior girls will play a semifinal game tonight as well, with the winner advancing to Friday's final against Turrell.
The Lucas Trucking 12-year-old traveling baseball team will sponsor a March Maddness youth basketball tournament.
The tournament will be played Saturday, March 6, at the Salem Baptist Church Life Center.
The tournament is serving as a fund raising effort to help fund the upcoming youth baseball tournament schedule.
Fee per each team will be $125 in the adult division and $75 per team in the youth division.
The tournament games will begin at 9 a.m. that Saturday.
The deadline to sign up for the tournament is Feb. 28. For more information, contact Roy Hancock at 633-3792 or Jim Bailey at 494-3530.
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.
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.
Registration for either the youth or adult summer leagues can be made at the Forrest City Recreation Department.
For more information about any of the leagues call Kenneth Taylor at 633-3667.