By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
FORREST CITY -- On Senior Night at Mustang Arena, it was a sophomore that stood the tallest for Forrest City.
Before the opening tip of Forrest City's final conference game against Jonesboro, the Forrest City seniors recognized their coach Dwight Lofton at midcourt.
Thirty-two minutes later, with no time on the clock, sophomore Cameron Henderson's 30-foot floater, launched not from the very spot where Lofton and his seniors had stood, caught nothing but net giving the Mustangs a dramatic 60-57 win over the Hurricane.
Going into the game, Forrest City knew they had to win to get into the Class AAAAA State Tournament, after losing to Mountain Home last Friday.
The Mustangs later found out they had the No. 4 seed from the AAAAA-East when Jacksonville lost to Mountain Home 54-47.
The Mustangs are wearing the fourth seed into the state tournament for the second straight year and are playing at North Little Rock for the second straight year. Last year, the Mustangs lost to El Dorado in the first-round.
Thanks to Henderson, the Mustangs live to play again -- next Tuesday (March 2) against fourth-ranked North Little Rock at 5:30 p.m.
North Little Rock defeated Little Rock Hall Tuesday night 55-47 to capture the AAAAA-Central crown.
Forrest City and North Little Rock have faced each other six times since Lofton took over the Mustang basketball program -- but not since the 1999-2000 season.
North Little Rock won all six games.
Tuesday's game rocked back-and-forth with 12 lead changes in the second half.
The Mustangs (15-11, 7-7) trailed 56-54 after Ryan Williams, who scored 23 points for the Hurricane, drove the lane to hit a short pull-up jumper with 1:40 left. Forrest City's Chris Williams answered with a three from the left wing on a kickout from Lorenzo Spearmon for a 57-56 Mustang lead with 1:22 left.
Forrest City got the ball back and ran the spread to the 25 second mark when Lorenzo Spearmon was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one. B.J. Carter rebounded for Jonesboro. Matt Garner's baseline jumper was blocked but Williams was fouled on the follow shot with 10 seconds to play.
Williams hit the second of two free throws to tie the game at 57-57. The Hurricane defense held up Forrest City point guard Taurus Moore from getting to half court until the 2.7 mark and Forrest City's final time out.
"We wanted to get to half court with about five seconds left to get the time out," Lofton said. "That would have given us plenty of time for our final shot and we were going to have the final shot."
From the time out, Spearmon inbounded and was covered immediately by the Jonesboro defense forcing a throw to Roy Lee Parker who dribbled into the corner but had no options for a shot. Parker found the wide-open Henderson standing out top. Henderson took the pass, set his feet and launched what became the game-winning shot, hitting nothing but net as the Forrest City fans stormed onto the court to join the jubilant Mustang players and Lofton, looking much like Jimmy Valvano, ran onto the floor, arms raised.
"I wish I could say we drew it up like that, but it worked," Lofton said. "We just wanted to make sure we had the last shot, period. And we had already talked about possible overtime. But Henderson's shot, it was floating and looked like it was in slow motion."
Jonesboro (18-8, 9-5) had little to lose except a little pride. The Hurricane had already wrapped up the league's No. 3 seed into the state tournament.
Spearmon, one of the Mustang seniors, got into early foul trouble and finished with just five points. That left the door open for senior John Formon returning after missing four weeks with a broken finger. Forman led the Mustangs with 16 points while Henderson added 13.
Forrest City jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first period and entered the second quarter with a 20-15 edge.
Jonesboro took its first lead of the game at 27-26 midway through the second quarter on Emmanuel Cheers' fake pass and layup on a three-on-one break but Henderson scored on the right block and the Mustangs led 32-29 at the break.
There were six lead changes in the third quarter. Stephen Cox and Matt Garner scored back-to-back buckets inside to give the Hurricane a 45-41 lead. Williams slipped inside and scored over a triple-team for a basket to put Jonesboro in front 49-47 after three quarters.
Formon's three off the inbounds gave Forrest City a 50-49 lead but Cox slashed inside and scored off a Williams' assist and Ronnie Tagge's three made it 54-52 Jonesboro with 3:56 left. Henderson scored down low to tie the game 54-54 with 3:30 showing.
Jonesboro shot 45 percent and outrebounded the Mustangs 29-24 while Forrest City shot 50 percent from the field.
Chris Williams finished with nine points for the Mustangs while Moore added six and Parker finished with four.
Jonesboro won the B game 48-43 as Shelby Clark and Darrel Jackson scored 12 points each.
West Memphis completed an undefeated run through the AAAAA-East Tuesday with 71-56 win over Cabot to capture the conference championship. Blytheville downed Searcy 69-48 to finish second.
Jackie Gilbert scored 20 of her 28 points in the first half and Rachel Allison added 22 as Jonesboro cruised past Forrest City 81-64 to finish the regular season 12-2 in the AAAAA-East.
The Lady Hurricane hit its first seven shots from the field in the third quarter and scored on its first 10 possessions of the period to pull away.
The Lady Hurricane (20-7, 12-2) finish as the second seed from the AAAAA-East and will take on the third seed from the AAAAA-Central Wednesday (March 3) at 4 p.m., in the first round of the state playoffs at North Little Rock.
Gilbert finished by burying five, three-pointers in the game.
Forrest City did their best from beyond the arc as well, hitting eight three pointers in the game, three of those by Sequoria Grady.
Jonesboro led 24-15 lead after one period and 39-28 at the half.
The Lady Hurricane did not let up, scoring on its first 10 possessions of the third period as Gilbert and Allison combined for 14 points in a 16-5 scoring run.
Forrest City ends the year at 7-20 overall and 3-11 in the conference.
Grady led Forrest City with 25 points while Shari Rogers helped out with 13 points and senior Trina Wynne added 11 points.
Cabot won the outright girls' championship in the AAAAA-East, defeating West Memphis Tuesday 58-41.
Ann Sullivan scored 12 points and Kailey Pinson added nine points as Jonesboro won the JV girls game 34-24.
LaShundra Rogers led Forrest City with eight points while Anita McDonald chipped in four.
Forrest City led 15-12 at the half but fell behind 21-15 after not scoring in the third period.