By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
After being knocked cuckoo by a 17-0 West Memphis run in the first quarter, Forrest City coach Dwight Lofton quickly made up his mind about the Blue Devils.
"West Memphis is as solid a team as I've seen in a long time," said Lofton after the Blue Devils scored a 68-42 victory over the Mustangs Tuesday night before an estimated crowd of 1,900 at the Devil Dome.
It was the fifth straight win over the Mustangs by a West Memphis team. Since a Forrest City sweep in the 2000-01 season, the Blue Devils have owned the conference series winning both matchups in the 2001-02 year and twice last year.
West Memphis won its 10th straight game behind near flawless play from junior point guard Marcus Mangum, who wowed the crowd with some pin-point passes and scoring a game-high 17 points.
"We've seen Little Rock Central's Trei Givens and I have to say Mangum is the best point guard in the dog-gone state hands down. He plays very unselfishly and when he gets the ball upcourt, boss, they rollin.'"
Rollin' to the tune of 11-2 overall and 2-0 in the AAAAA-East Conference. Forrest City falls to 8-6 and 0-2 in the league.
West Memphis joins Jacksonville, which was idle Tuesday night and Blytheville in a three-way tie for first in the East standings at 2-0 each.
For the first four minutes, the game was actually close. The Mustangs took an 8-7 lead on a rebound basket by Sherman Allen, but that only signaled the aforementioned 17-0 spurt by West Memphis.
It started innocently enough on a layup by senior Des McCoy, who scored 12 points. Later, Mangum threw an alley-oop pass to Sonny Weems, who went in hard for the dunk. The run ended with two Mangum threes to make it 26-8 West Memphis at the end of the first quarter.
"West Memphis did a tremendous job suckering us into their type of game, which is transition," Lofton added. "When we missed shots, they just stretched it out. They go from defense to offense extremely well."
The Blue Devils had plenty of opportunity to do that because the Mustangs shot just over 20 percent in the first half.
"We had some good looks. We just couldn't make any shots," Lofton said.
West Memphis led 41-17 at the half and the rest of the game mainly belonged to the Blue Devil reserves. The scoreboard clock ran non-stop for the final 1:42 of the game under the mercy rule.
Weems added nine points for the Blue Devils while senior guard Quentin Furlow chipped in eight.
Forrest City got 14 points from Lorenzo Spearmon while John Forman hit six and DeAngelo Braddock and Allen each had four.
West Memphis also won the junior varsity game, 43-42. Sophomores Jason Henry and Terry Simmons scored 12 and 10 points for West Memphis. Jarvis Palmer led Forrest City with 12 points while Derrick Humphrey added 10.
Forrest City will play at Searcy on Friday.
For the second time in as many games, the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils found themselves locked in a fight for their conference lives Tuesday.
At the buzzer, the final score read 56-43 in favor of West Memphis over Forrest City Tuesday night at the Devil Dome.
The scoreboard was right, but in reality the West Memphis winning margin was no more than three or four points at the most.
Last Friday, the Lady Blue Devils had to hold off Searcy 55-52.
Forced to start fouling late in the fourth quarter, the Lady Mustangs watched as West Memphis hit 25-of-35 free throws in the game -- seven in the final minute to push their lead from 49-43 to the final.
In contrast, the Lady Mustangs went to the foul line only seven
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Tuesday may have been the start of the rest of the season for the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots.
Palestine-Wheatley picked up their third win of the season by turning back Barton's Lady Bears 43-32 at Patriot Gym.
The victory leaves the Lady Pats at 3-8 for the year and 2-1 in the 6AA Conference.
The win also gives the Lady Patriots a two-game winning streak. P-W defeated Clarendon on Friday.
Whitney Smith led the way with 14 points and finished with a "double-double" grabbing almost as many rebounds.
Bernice Sparkman finished with 11 points while Fallon Parker had five and Cara Lansford added four.
In all, Lady Patriot Coach Lanny Allen played everyone and everyone contributed in the win.
The Lady Pats led 9-7 after one quarter but fell behind at the half 19-16.
A third-quarter rally gave P-W a 31-25 edge to begin the fourth quarter.
"We won three of the battles and finally the war," Allen said of the victory.
The Lady Pats hit 10-of-16 free throws and held Barton to just 13 second-half points.
*In 3AA-South Conference play, the Turrell Lady Rockets took a 65-48 win over the Hughes Lady Blue Devils Tuesday at Turrell.
Anshel Cooper scored 18 points to lead Turrell while the sister-act of Shaunnatay and Shameka Delaney each scored 14 points.
Turrell led 19-15 after the first quarter, and 35-25 at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, Turrell led 52-37.
*Rudy Martin scored 27 points to power Marked Tree by Parkin 62-40 Tuesday in senior girls' basketball.
Martin's total included three 3-pointers. Ann Marie Webb added 13 points for Marked Tree (9-6, 4-1 3AA-South), which led 10-5 after a quarter, 24-11 at halftime and 40-25 after three periods.
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots are off and running with a 3-0 mark in the 6AA Conference, following Tuesday's 77-41 win over the Barton Bears.
Jesse Adams led the way with 17 points while Justin Tomblin had 12 and Vince Jones finished with 11 for the Patriots.
The Patriots downed Clarendon 81-44 last Friday.
In the junior boys game, Phil Hicks scored 32 points to help the Junior Patriots to a 64-41 win over Barton. Taylor Clark added 11 points. The Junior Patriots are 7-2 overall and 2-0 in he conference.
*Marcus Washington led Hughes with 24 points as they defeated Turrell in a close 77-72 win.
Nathathoe Gibson led Turrell with 28 points, while Adidus Cooper had 18 points.
Hughes led 22-16 after the first quarter, but Turrell claimed a 44-43 halftime lead. After three, Turrell led 60-59.
*Brad Jones scored 26 points in Marked Tree's 54-49 victory over Parkin Tuesday night.
Jones hit all 12 of his free throws, while Dunaway Barnes had 10 points. Jeremy Marrs had 15 points for Parkin.
Marked Tree led 15-9 after the first quarter, 28-20 at the half and 42-36 after three.