By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Lorenzo Spearmon's 23 points and 14 rebounds gave the Forrest City Mustangs their third straight AAAAA-East Conference win Friday night.
The Mustangs stayed in a tie for third place in the conference by defeating the Mountain Home Bombers 57-42 at Mustang Arena.
Forrest City is 3-0 against Mountain Home since the Bombers moved into the East Conference a year ago.
The Mustangs outscored Mountain Home 12-0 to close out the fourth quarter.
Forrest City improves to 11-6 overall and 3-2 in the East while Mountain Home falls to 5-13 overall and 1-4 in the conference.
The 3-2 conference mark leaves Forrest City tied with Jacksonville -- Tuesday night's opponent.
The Bombers led early on a pair of three-pointers by Zach McGrath, but Spearmon and "Buck" Braddock combined to score 12 points to spark a Mustang run as Forrest City rallied to take a 16-6 lead to start the second period.
Mountain Home started their own run in the second period and got within 16-14 before Forrest City's Chris Williams turned a traditional three-point play for a 21-14 Mustang lead.
Still the Bombers stayed close and the Mustangs led 24-21 at the half.
Forrest City opened the third quarter with three, quick inside scores by Braddock -- one of those, a thunderous dunk -- a jumper by Sherman Allen and a free throw by Spearmon to push the lead to 12 points at 33-21.
Mountain Home got no closer than six points for the rest of the quarter even though Joe Schmitt scored eight points in the post as Mountain Home went into the fourth period trailing 39-33.
The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes of the fourth period, before Forrest City slammed the door on any hopes of a Bomber comeback with a 12-3 run, turning a 45-39 lead into a 57-42 win. Spearmon led the charge with six points during the run while Allen and John Foreman helped with long jumpers.
Spearmon's 23 points marked the second time in two games against Mountain Home that the Mustang senior has recorded huge efforts. In the second meeting between the two teams a year ago, Spearmon had 21 in a 72=41 Mustang win.
Braddock finished with 10 points for the Mustangs, his best scoring effort since a 10-point performance against Osceola in the finals of the Seminole Classic back in December. Foreman finished with eight points for Forrest City while Allen added six.
McGrath scored points 20 to lead the Bombers.
Mountain Home sophomore Samantha Dean exploded for seven consecutive three-pointers to fuel a 22-to-1 run in the second period of Friday's AAAAA-East Conference game against the Forrest City Lady Mustangs.
Dean's barrage erased a 12-9 Forrest City lead and left the Lady Bombers with a 36-17 halftime lead which eventually led to a 61-39 Mountain Home win.
Mountain Home improves to 11-6 on the year and 3-2 in league play and moves into sole possession of fourth place in the East standings.
Forrest City dips to 5-13 and 1-4 in the East and faces a pair of road trips this week, to Jacksonville and to Jonesboro.
The Lady Bombers trailed 12-9 after the first period, before Dean took over to become a one-person wrecking crew.
Dean nailed back-to-back threes to make it 15-12 to open the second period. After a Lady Mustang time out, Daysha McGrath followed with an inside layup, and Dean hit back-to-back three-pointers again for a 23-12 lead.
Torri Willis interrupted the Lady Bomber's run with one free throw, but again, Dean drained back-to-back three-pointers -- Nos. 5 and 6 of the quarter -- as Mountain Home pushed their lead to 29-13.
Another McGrath field goal put Mountain home on top 31-13 before Viveca Kimble dropped in a pair of Forrest City free throws and Sequoria Grady went baseline for an easy two points.
Micaela Cully's jumper made it a 33-17 Mountain Home lead before Dean hit her seventh three pointer with 50 seconds to play giving the Lady Bombers 36-17 lead at the half.
Dean had 21 of Mountain Home's 27 second period points.
Forrest City made a bid to get back in the ball game by outscoring Mountain Home 7-2 to start the third period behind the inside sorting of Kimble, Grady and Shari Rogers, but the Lady Bombers remained in control and led by 20 points, 47-27 to start the fourth period.
The Lady Bombers scored 14 points and the Lady Mustangs netted just 12 in the final period for the 61-39 final.
Dean led all scorers with 23 points in the contest. Cully notched 14 and Olivia Fisher had 10.
Trina Wynne paced Forrest City with 16 (10 of that coming in the first half), Viveca Kimble added 10 and Grady finished with seven points.
The Lady Mustangs will travel to Jacksonville to take on the struggling Lady Red Devils, 46-36 losers to West Memphis on Friday.
Jarvis Palmer and LaCody Braddock scored 12 points each to lift the JV Mustangs past Mountain Home 43-41 in overtime Friday night.
The two teams ended regulation tied at 34.
Palmer scored six of his 10 points in the overtime period.
John Scott Carroll chipped in nine points while Michael Alston
had eight.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
LITTLE ROCK -- The Palestine-Wheatley team stepped out of conference play Friday night to make a non-conference trip to Arkansas Baptist in Little Rock.
The trip ended with a win for the Patriots but a loss for the Lady Patriots.
Jesse Adams scored 19 points to lead three Patriot players in double figures as Palestine-Wheatley brought home a 58-50 win over the Eagles.
Jestin Tomblin added 12 points while Rashun Barnes finished with 10 and Vince Jones added nine.
The Patriots led 14-6 after one period and held a 22-20 lead at the half.
The Patriots, currently in third place in the 6AA Conference behind Altheimer and Elaine, will host Gillett Tuesday night and will play its annual homecoming game Friday against Marvell.
The Lady Patriots overcame a sluggish first half in which the team scored just 15 points to put up 36 points in the second half, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Lady Eagles in a 64-51 loss to Arkansas Baptist.
Tonisha Wynne led the Lady Patriots with 18 points while Fallon Parker scored 16 and Bernice Sparkman added eight points.
Arkansas Baptist led 16-6 after one period and 29-15 at the half.
Meanwhile, the Hughes Blue Devils got 15 points from David Dowden in a 77-66 win over Cross County in a 3AA South Conference win Friday night at Blue Devil Gym.
Hughes led 41-27 at the half.
Aaron Bowles and Patrick Jones led Cross County with 19 points.
The Hughes Junior Blue Devils also notched a conference win by putting away Cross County 54-40.
The Lady Blue Devils defeated Cross County in the senior girls matchup Friday.
Palestine-Wheatley hosted the second annual seventh-grade basketball jamboree Saturday. Joining P-W for a series of 20-minute matchups were the Forrest City, Brinkley and Marianna boys and girls teams.
The Forrest City seventh grade boys finished 2-1 for the day, defeating Brinkley and Palestine-Wheatley and losing to Marianna. The Forrest City seventh-grade girls finished 3-0 with wins over Brinkley, Marianna and Palestine-Wheatley.
Forrest City will participate in another seventh-grade jamboree Saturday, Jan. 31, at Brinkley before hosting one of their own at Mustang Arena, on Saturday, Feb. 7.
Mustang Arena will be silent this week.
There are no home games on tap for any of Forrest City's basketball teams.
The junior high teams will play at West Memphis Wonder tonight and have an open date on Thursday.
After Thursday's open date, the junior high teams have four playing dates remaining. Forrest City will host the AAAAA-East Junior High Conference Tournament, scheduled to begin in mid-February.
The Forrest City Mustangs and Lady Mustangs have conference road trips this week, at Jacksonville Tuesday and at Jonesboro on Friday.
Forrest City's next home game will be Tuesday, Feb. 3, when West Memphis come to Mustang Arena.