By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Tonight's conference road trip to Mountain Home is far more than just another regular season matchup against the Bombers.
Far more. It is a long and winding road.
It is also a matter of survival for Forrest City.
On Tuesday, the Mustangs took a big step toward qualifying for the Class AAAAA state tournament in North Little Rock by stopping Jacksonville at Mustang Arena.
The Mustangs needed to win that game to even have a shot at postseason and they needed to win by at least six points.
They won and they won by 10, which makes tonight's game at Mountain Home even more important.
And even though Tuesday's victory over Jacksonville put the Mustangs back into a tie for the fourth seed from the AAAAA-East giving the team the "breaker" in case of a tie against Jacksonville in the final standings, tonight's game still remains a must win.
"I know it's senior night for them (Mountain Home) and I know they will be trying to showcase senior guard Zack McGrath, since it is his final home game," said Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton. "I know what we did Tuesday but if we mess up tonight that makes Tuesday's final game against Jonesboro a must win. We need to go ahead and get the "W" tonight to help solidify our position."
Lofton is not counting out his Mustangs in the final game against Jonesboro -- he is just being realistic.
"I like our chances better against Mountain Home," Lofton said. "Get the win tonight and let Tuesday take care of itself."
Save for one game, the Mustangs wouldn't be in this "must-win" situation.
"It all goes back to the loss to Cabot in the first conference game on our floor," Lofton said. "If we would have taken care of business then, we would have some breathing room right now."
Against the Bombers tonight, the Mustangs may need to strap on the oxygen masks -- they might need them.
"They will be running and we have to run to stay with them," Lofton said. "If we can keep the scoring in the 60s, we should be okay."
Oh yes, and contain McGrath. That is key.
"Our guys know what they have to do," Lofton said. "They have been deadly serious in practice since Tuesday's win. I hope that is a good thing."
*While tonight's senior girls' game is a big matchup for Sue Jayroe's Lady Mustangs, it is vital for the Mountain Home girls.
Forrest City is well out of the running for a state tournament berth, but the Lady Bombers are trying to hold on to the conference's fourth spot.
Mountain Home enters tonight's game tied with West Memphis at 8-4.
The Lady Mustangs are playing out the season at 7-18 overall and 3-9 in the conference.
Mountain Home owns all three victories in the series against the Lady Mustangs.
"We have two games left and we can use them to help get the girls ready for next season," Jayroe said. "Everybody is healthy and ready to play."
The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs will close out the regular season Tuesday when they host Jonesboro at Mustang Arena.
Everybody plays tonight at Mountain Home beginning at 4 p.m., when the junior varsity girls take the floor.
The junior varsity boys will follow before he senior girls and senior boys' games.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
As it should be, the No. 1 and 2 seeds will play for the district title tonight in the finals of the AAAAA-East Junior High District Tournament being played at Mustang Arena.
Jonesboro MacArthur, the league's regular season champion and No. 1 seed into the district tournament, will battle Forrest City's Junior Mustangs, who finished second to MacArthur and the No. 2 seed into the tournament. Tip off for the boys' title game is 6:30 p.m.
And oh by the way, the only blemish on MacArthur's 11-1 conference mark, came courtesy of Forrest City in a 58-37 win at Mustang Arena.
That, in itself makes tonight's title game a "must see event."
Forrest City is back in the tournament's championship game for the second straight year. Forrest City lost to West Memphis West a year ago.
And if that doesn't add more drama to the final, there is one other little detail.
Win or lose, it will be the final game for Forrest City Coach Jimmy Williams, who is retiring at the end of the year.
"It would be nice to out with a championship," Williams said. "But either way, it has been a good ride."
The Junior Mustangs reached tonight's final by turning back a determined West Memphis Wonder team 53-45. Wonder entered postseason as the No. 3 seeded team.
Against Wonder, Forrest City had to work a little harder than they did Wednesday in their opening win over seventh-seeded West Memphis West.
It took the Junior Mustangs an entire half to "find their groove" as the two teams swapped the lead several times in the first half and battled through at least four ties before Forrest City finally took the lead for good and went into halftime with a 35-28 cushion.
There was another matter of concern for Williams' team. They had to play the entire third period without starting freshman guard/forward Marcus Britt, who picked up his fourth personal foul just before the half.
With Kellon Bowman filling nicely for Britt, the Junior Mustangs pushed their lead to 40-30 on a traditional three-point play by Kelson Stewart with 3:26 in the period.
Wonder cut the lead to eight at 42-34 with two minutes to play before Stephon Weaver buried a deep three and hit two free throws to put the Junior Mustangs ahead 47-39 to start the fourth period.
Britt returned and Forrest City moved to a 53-45 lead with two minutes left. After using their final time out with 1:27 to play, Forrest City went to a spread offense but Wonder opted not to foul and the Junior Mustangs ran out the clock.
Weaver led all scorers with 22 points, 13 of that in the first half. Weaver was perfect from the foul line hitting all nine of his free throw chances. As a team, Forrest City hit 16-of-17 free throws.
Britt finished with 14 while Stewart added five and Bowman helped with four.
If the Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs thought Monday's win over West Memphis East was big --and it was -- then Thursday's 56-55 semifinal victory over Blytheville was more than huge.
It is the first-ever district final appearance for a Forrest City junior high girls' team. Monday's win was the first postseason victory for a Forrest City junior girls team in more than a decade.
"These girls are pumped and they believe they can go out and win," said first-year Coach Jacky England. "They were excited after winning Monday and boy were they excited tonight. Now all they have to do is decide which trophy they want tonight -- the second place one, which is nice or the big, shiny first place one."
Forrest City entered the district tournament as the No. 6 seeded team out of seven conference members. Blytheville wore the second seed and West Memphis West, their opponent in tonight's title game, wears the No. 4 seed.
West knocked off top-seeded West Memphis Wonder 49-41 to start Thursday's semifinal action.
In the two regular meetings, West defeated the Junior Lady Mustangs by 11 and by 10 points.
The Junior Lady Mustangs took an early lead and stretched it to 16-6 midway through the second period before settling on a 33-21 advantage at the half.
The team's first-half success was bolstered by Fareeda Washington's 17 points with 11 of that coming in the second period alone. Washington would finish with 22, including three, threes.
Blytheville, riding the hot hand of Whiquita Tobar got within 41-28 and put together a 10-0 run to cut Forrest City's lead to three at 41-38 with 1:04 to play in the period.
With 7.2 seconds Forrest City turned a conventional three-point play to get the lead back to 44-38 top start the fourth.
A Blytheville steal and layup cut Forrest City's lead to 46-43 at the five minute mark and a three pointer and one free throw left the Junior Lady Mustangs hanging on 52-50 with 2:46 to play.
After a Forrest City time out, Cassandra Jackson drove the lane for two and then nailed a turn-around jumper to get the cushion back to 56-52 with 1:22 to go.
Blytheville's Shaquallia Jamison buried her fifth, three pointer of the game with 20 seconds to play which pulled Blytheville to within one point at 56-55.
Jackson missed the front end of a one-and-one and Washington's rebound and attempted putback missed it mark as Jamison got control and started the fast break without a Forrest City defender in site. Jamison lost control of the ball out of bounds with 3.6 seconds to play instead of getting the easy layup, giving new life to Forrest City.
Matisha Dobbins missed the front end of her one-and-one with .3 seconds to play but the official and the Blytheville defenders, thinking it was a two-shot foul let the ball bounce before realizing what had happened. The play was ruled a jump ball and the possession arrow was pointing Forrest City's way for the win.
Forrest City and West Memphis West will tip at 5 p.m. today.
Jackson was the only other Forrest City player in double figures with 17 while Astrin Allen had nine and Dobbins and Bookita Vaughn had four points each.
Jamison finished with 21 to lead Blytheville while Tobar added 19.
The 56 points by Forrest City was another season high for the team which set the mark in Monday's win over East by scoring 53 points.
*Brea Banks scored 22 points to lead the West Memphis West junior girls to a 49-41 upset win over top-seeded West Memphis Wonder Thursday in semifinal action at the AAAAA-East junior high district tournament.
Wonder led 9-8 after the first period but fell behind at the half 17-15. West was ahead by a single point, 228-27 to start the fourth period and used a 21-to-14 scoring burst in the final frame to get the win.
*Grant Cook took an inbounds lob from Logan Nutt and hit the game-winning layup with 3.4 seconds left, giving the top-seeded Jonesboro MacArthur junior boys a 40-38 semifinal victory over rival Jonesboro Annie Camp in the AAAAA-East district tournament Thursday night.
The win lifted MacArthur into tonight's district final game against No. 2 seeded Forrest City, the only team to defeat MacArthur in regular season conference play.
Cook's basket came after Annie Camp's Murray Benton hit a free throw to tie the game at 38-38 with under 10 seconds left.
After Benton missed the second free throw, Cook grabbed the rebound and called time with eight seconds left.
Benton finished with 14 points, while Chris Parks had eight points for Annie Camp (12-8).
Logan Nutt and Roosevelt Griffin each scored 11 points to lead MacArthur (16-2).
Annie Camp led 8-6 after the first quarter, but MacArthur went into halftime holding a 19-17 lead. By the end of the third quarter, Annie Camp held a 30-26 lead.
MacArthur outscored Annie Camp 14-to-8 in the fourth period getting seven points from Nutt.
The Palestine-Wheatley junior boys and girls basketball teams will play tonight at the 6AA district tournament at Altheimer.
Both teams will be playing semifinal games.
The junior girls will face Elaine at 4:30 p.m. and the junior
boys will take on Clarendon at 5:45 p.m. The winners will play
in Saturday's finals.