By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Jonesboro's Ryan Williams scored 32 points, hauled down 11 rebounds and dished out seven assists Friday night to lead the Hurricane past Forrest City 75-71 at Hurricane Gym.
If that wasn't enough, Williams turned a trio of defensive plays in the final minute to secure the victory, which leaves Jonesboro at 4-3 in the AAAAA-East Conference standings.
Williams' exclamation point was a two-handed dunk with 37 seconds left in the game after Forrest City had trimmed the Jonesboro lead to just one point after battling back from being down by 10.
Working out of a double team trap by the Mustang defense, Jonesboro's Ronnie Tagge passed ahead to Williams who threw down the dunk.
Forrest City senior Lorenzo Spearmon, led all scorers with 33 points.
Spearmon, bouncing back from a terrible night at Jacksonville three days earlier in which he was held to just nine points, nailed a three-pointer and launched another one that would have tied the game with :04 to play had it not been for Williams who went for the block and got more of Spearmon than he did the ball.
"Spearmon just went crazy," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "You can't ask for a better effort than the one he gave us."
The Mustangs hit nine of their first 10 shots and for the game, shot 61 percent from the field.
The Williams' block, which Lofton deemed "questionable" secured the Jonesboro victory and lifted the Hurricane into a tie for third place in the tough conference race after Mountain Home defeated Jacksonville 54-42.
That also got Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton a technical.
"Did Williams get a piece of Spearmon?' Lofton responded when asked about the call. "Let me just say that if we had been playing hockey instead of basketball, that would have been a great body check. I had to get the technical. I tried earlier to get one but they wouldn't call it. But I had to do it for the kids. They were playing too hard for me not too."
The Mustangs slip to 11-8 overall and 3-4 in the conference and fall into fifth place after suffering two consecutive losses.
"Still, we're just 10 points from being 5-2," Lofton added. The Mustangs lost to jacksonville by six on Tuesday and by four to Jonesboro.
"This race isn't over by a long shot," Lofton said. "There's still seven games remaining to be played and we have as good a chance as anyone to finish in the top four."
Jonesboro (13-6, 4-3) nailed 17 of its first 19 shots and built a 17-point lead but Forrest City (11-8, 3-4) battled back behind Spearmon, who scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to give the Mustangs a chance at the victory.
Spearmon's hanging leaner in the lane finished a 9-1 run that brought Forrest City within 66-65 with 2:23 remaining in the game.
B.J. Carter then sank one of two free throws to put Jonesboro ahead 67-65 and Williams stripped Spearmon on his way up for a shot and was fouled underneath, sinking both free throws for a 69-65 lead with 1:25 left.
Forrest City's Chris Williams then drained a Œ3‚ from the left corner to cut the lead to 69-68 with :49 left and the Mustangs sicced on a tough full-court trap.
Jonesboro inbounded to Tagge, but he was double-teamed and had nowhere to go in the backcourt. He pivoted around the defenders and spotted Williams streaking downcourt, lofting a long pass that Williams hauled down and soared in for a vicious slam that brought the crowd to its feet and coach Barry Pruitt pumping his fist with :37 left.
Tagge then picked up a steal as Forrest City tried to pass the ball inside and buried two free throws for a 73-68 lead.
Spearmon wasn't done however, burying a long 3‚ from the top of the key to make it a one-possession game at 73-71 with :13 left.
Tagge sank one of two free throws and the Mustangs hurried down as Spearmon caught a pass on the right wing, stepping back behind the line, but his three‚ that would have tied the game was swatted away by a flying Williams and secured by Matt Garner with under :01 left.
"It just came down to what I thought it would be ˜ a great battle between Spearmon and Williams," Lofton said. "That's what it came down to and Williams made a few more plays early. Both of those guys kind of put their teams on their shoulders and it was a great battle down the stretch. It was a great high school game. Jonesboro is rising again, like they always do.
"They (Jonesboro) did a great job of getting that ball inside. We made a few adjustments at halftime and kind of tried to keep Williams out of there. He made some great plays on defense. Jonesboro made the plays they had to make down the stretch. I hurt that we lost but I was really proud to be a part of that. It was a great high school game."
Garner finished with 14 points, while Tagge had 12. The Hurricane led 24-19 at the end of the period.
Williams scored nine points during the second quarter as Jonesboro pushed the lead to 31-19 after opening the period by scoring the first seven points.
Hammering the ball inside to its height advantage, Forrest City cut the lead back to 34-24 on a Spearmon bucket but Tagge's three put the lead back at 36-23.
Williams came away with a steal and teamed with Tagge for a two-on-one break as Williams flushed a high-alley oop pass to make it 38-23.
The Hurricane led 46-29 late in the first half but Forrest City scored the final five points of the period to cut the lead at the break to 46-34 on Spearmon's three.
Spearmon scored eight points in the third quarter as Forrest City cut the lead to seven twice, but Jonesboro held on to lead 57-48 to start the fourth quarter.
Forrest City was hot as well, shooting 9-of-10 in the first quarter and finishing at 31-of-51 (61 percent) for the game.
In the senior girls‚ game, Aquasha Anderson scored 23 points and Jade Plunk buried four of her six, three pointers in the second quarter as the Lady Hurricane raced up and down the court and shot 55 percent from the field in a 88-54 victory.
Overall, the Lady Hurricane buried 12, threes in the game.
Anderson scored nine first-quarter points and Plunk buried four threes in the second period.
Jonesboro improves to 15-5 and 7-0 in the AAAAA-East.
Jonesboro moved out to a 23-12 lead after the first period and led 46-32 at the half after Forrest City (6-14, 2-5) got within 10 points twice during the second period.
Jonesboro kept up the pressure in the second half, putting Forrest City away with a 9-0 run midway through the third period on their way to a comfortable 69-46 lead to start the fourth period.
The lady Hurricane finished the game under the "mercy rule."
Forrest City's Viveca Kimble recorded a career-high 16 rebounds to go along with her 12 points. Trina Wynne led the Lady Mustangs in scoring with 17 points and grabbed five rebounds. Sequoria Grady, playing sick, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds and had two blocked shots.
Jonesboro placed five in double figures.
Jonesboro shot 35-of-63 (56 percent) from the field and out-rebounded Forrest City 35-25 while turning the ball over just 10 times. The Lady Mustangs shot just 35 percent (22 of 63) from the field.
"I want everyone to know that the Lady Mustangs are not hanging their heads and they are playing as hard as they play," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "It seems like everyone in the league picks the game against us to have a career-night player. But there are seven games left and we have the chance to pick up some wins."
Jonesboro improved to 5-0 in the league by winning the B game 49-23.
Alisha Jimmerson led Forrest City with eight points while LaShundra Rogers had seven and Anita McDonald added five. Jasmina Morton grabbed nine rebounds in the game.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
In a pair of games that became rather heated at times, the Palestine-Wheatley Patriots got 29 points from Vince Jones and Jesse Adams which helped the home team to a 90-68 homecoming victory over the Marvell Mustangs Friday at Patriot Gym.
Curtis Allen came off the bench to add 11 points.
The Patriots broke the game open by outscoring the Mustangs 24-to-10 in the second period to lead 43-31 at the half after trailing 21-19 after the first period.
Palestine-Wheatley opened the second period with a 9-0 run and at the 3:07 mark, had outscored the Mustangs 17-to-2.
The Patriots never let up, even though P-W Coach Terry Clardy substituted freely during most of the second half.
Adams and Jones took over to start the second half, scoring 19 of the Patriots‚ 28 points in the third period.
While the Patriots' lead never hit 30, which invokes the "mercy rule," and a continuous running clock in the fourth period, the team was never in jeopardy.
Marvell got only as close as 55-42 midway through the third after a brief 5-0 run.
By the time the two teams took the floor for the final period, the Patriots led 70-48.
Palestine-Wheatley used a 6-0 run to get the lead to 84-62 with three minutes to play in the game.
Dommic Jones led Marvell with 15 points while Brandon Copeland had 14, Kelly Whiteside had 13 and Otis Croft finished with 11.
Rashun Barnes finished with seven points for the Patriots while Tony Huntley, Jestin Tomblin and Fred Leak had four points each.
A win doesn't have to be pretty and Marvell's victory over the P-W Lady Patriots certainly wasn't anywhere close.
Latoria Miller scored 19 points and got plenty of offensive help from Ashley Henderson and Cassandra Banks as the Marvell Fillies made it three consecutive wins (dating back to last season) over the Lady Patriots, taking home a 52-50 victory Friday night.
Neither team led by more than four points in the fourth period and the Marvell Fillies had a chance to win the game as they held for the final shot after P-W's Bernice Sparkman tied the game at 50-50 with 1:11 to play.
Palestine-Wheatley forced a turnover but lost the ball back to the Fillies just across midcourt in what started a mad scramble and ended with a Marvell field goal with 9.9 seconds left in the game for a 52-50 lead.
The Lady Patriots led 14-10 after the first period before Marvell used a 14-to-4 second period to lead 24-18 at the half.
Marvell maintained a slight 37-35 lead to open the fourth period.
Sparkman led all scorers with 22 points and Tonisha Wynne added 10 points for Palestine-Wheatley.
Whitney Smith added six for the Lady Patriots before fouling out with 6:24 to play in the game.
"That hurt," said P-W Coach Lanny Allen. "She is our post inside and when she isn't on the floor, we don't have anyone to fill her shoes."