By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
AUGUSTA -- The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots won a regional tournament game Thursday for the first time since the 1995 season.
Led by a fierce second half attack -- which saw the Patriots score 33 points in the third period -- P-W routed the Harding Academy Wildcats 78-54 to move into today's 5:30 p.m., semifinal game against Carlisle at the Class AA Region 6 Tournament being played at Augusta.
A Patriot win today will put the team into Saturday's championship game and assure the team of a berth in the Class AA State Tournament which will be played next week at Centerpoint High School by Hot Springs.
The regional winner and runner-up advance to the state tournament.
For Palestine-Wheatley coach Terry Clardy, the long dry spell between regional tournament victories is over.
"It's definitely been a while. We've been to state once before and now we're just one game away again," Clardy said. "If we can step up our game just a little more we can get to state. I think it can be us and Altheimer in the finals on Saturday."
If so, that would be a repeat of the 6AA District Tournament championship game one week ago, won by Altheimer.
For now, Clardy and his Patriot team -- which houses only one senior -- must focus on Carlisle, the No. 2 seed from the 2AA South. Carlisle defeated Marvell Wednesday to advance.
"I don't know much about Carlisle," Clardy said. "I know they have a big kid and I have some other information on them but I need to study that a little more."
For a half Thursday against Harding, which eliminated the Patriots a year ago in the first round, it looked as if P-W's regional woes might continue for yet another year.
Then the team played the third period.
Palestine-Wheatley (15-10) scored just 24 points in the entire first half and trailed at halftime 27-24 after closing out the first period with a 15-10 cushion.
Harding tied the game twice in the second period, at 15-15 and again at 17-17 before taking a 20-19 lead with just under three minutes left in the period.
Harding stretched that lead to 27-22 with 25 seconds to play before Barnes' late two got the Patriots back within three at the half.
Sparked by Antonio Leak and Rashun Barnes, the Patriots outscored Harding Academy 33-to-10 in the third period to take a 57-37 lead to start the fourth period.
"We played passively in the first half," Clardy said. "I told them at the half they weren't playing to win, they were only playing to stay in the ball game. We have to play to win and the guys responded by stepping up their offense and their defense and that made the difference."
The Patriots opened the third period with a 6-0 run to take a 30-27 lead.
Leading 43-34 with 3:16 to play in the period, the Patriots put together a 10-to-1 run to move to 53-35 with 1:20 to play in the third. And they did most of their damage with junior center Vince Jones on the bench with three personal fouls.
In the fourth period however, Jones returned to the floor and took over, scoring inside almost at will. Jestin Tomblin, P-W's only senior, brought the crowd to their feet not once, but twice, with a pair of alley-oop slams.
Jones finished with 20 points while Curtis Allen and Barnes each added 13 and Leak helped out with 10. Tomlin finished with eight points.
Harding Academy (18-16) got 20 points from junior center Ryan Higginbotham and 18 points from Michael Kee.
The Patriots finished third in the 6AA Conference standings and finished runner-up to Altheimer in the district finals.
Altheimer, which defeated DeValls Bluff Wednesday to advance will play tonight at 8:30 p.m., against either Elaine or Augusta.
Altheimer is the Class AA defending state champions and have been ranked No. 1 in Class AA for most of the season.
Des Arc and Harding Academy will play one of the two girls' semifinal games today at 4 p.m. Carlisle will take on either Gillett or Augusta in the 7 p.m., girls' semifinal game.
Saturday's finals will be at 7 p.m. and at 8:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Macon Road Baptist defeated the Calvary Christian Lady Eagles 51-11 in the first round of the MACS High School District Tournament being played at Central Baptist this week.
Calvary's Katie McNew scored eight of the Lady Eagles 11 points while Christy Tittle had two and Hannah McMahand had one point.
The Lady Eagles will play in the consolation game Saturday ast 10 a.m., against Westminster.
The Calvary Eagles lost to Faith Heritage 82-49 in their opening gameat the MACS District Tournament.
Faith heritage drilled 10, three pointers in the game.
Calvary scored 20 points in the fourth period.
Adam Hillis had 12 points in the final game of his Calvary high school career. Kyle Smith led the eagles with 16 points while Jason Cantrell finished with nine and Luke Myers had eight.
Dante Wright, who was recently named the director for the nine-county East Arkansas Fellowship of Christian Athletes, will be the featured speaker on Monday, March 1, during a rally at the Forrest City Junior High School auditorium.
The rally begins at 6:30 p.m., and is open to all FCA Chapter members within the nine-county district.
A Texas native and former assistant football coach at Arkansas State University, Wright recently accepted the challenge to build FCA huddle groups in the 36 schools within the nine-county area.
For more than two years, the East Arkansas FCA has been working toward establishing a local office which would serve the nine-counties -- St. Francis, Cross, Arkansas, Crittenden, Lee, Monroe, Phillips, Prairie and Woodruff -- through rallies, banquets and other fund raising efforts.
Originally scheduled to open in June, the local FCA office will open its doors in March thanks in part to First Baptist Church in Forrest City, which will provide the office space needed.
Using his athletic past as a springboard to reach out to coaches, students and others, Wright believes he can share the Gospel of Christ on a one-to-one basis.
"The ground work has been laid and now it is my job to help water what has already been planted," Wright said.
The FCA rally will help the general public know more about FCA and what FCA is about.
The rally is open to adults and students and admission is free.