By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
JACKSONVILLE -- The Devil's Den at Jacksonville has always been tough on visiting teams.
Forrest City found out just how tough Tuesday night in a AAAAA-East Conference matchup.
Sequoria Grady's NBA three-pointer at the buzzer left the Forrest City Lady Mustangs and Jacksonville Lady Red Devils tied at 66-66 to end regulation.
Two overtimes and two hours after the opening tip, the Lady Mustangs walked away with a hard-fought 80-75 win.
"I really feel like we have been to war and we survived," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "My girls kept fighting and they never hung their heads. It was a gutsy performance."
The casualties were high for both teams. Forrest City had three starters -- Trina Wynne, Shari Rogers and Grady foul out. Jacksonville coach Tanya Ganey watched as seven Lady Red Devils fouled out leaving Ganey with just three players on the floor for the final two minutes of the game.
The Lady Mustangs hit 33 of 44 free throw chances while Jacksonville hit 19 of 29 foul shots.
"If it wasn't for our free throw shooting, we would have lost this game," Jayroe said.
The Lady Mustangs shot 75 percent from the line.
Forrest City led 14-6 after the first period and were up 31-27 at the half.
"We probably should have been up more than that, but the way they were calling fouls, it was hard to get into any kind of rhythm," Jayroe said. "And I'm not complaining that it was just against me, they were calling fouls on both ends of the floor. Just look at the seven Jacksonville players who fouled out. The three she (Ganey) had left on the floor each had four fouls."
Jacksonville turned things around in the third period and led 44-42 to start the final period which was back and forth until the buzzer.
Jacksonville was holding a 66-63 lead with just seconds in the game when Grady nailed the three to send the game into extra innings.
"I knew the minute Grady got the ball on the inbounds, what she was going to do," Jayroe said. "But I also knew from the look on her face when she released the ball, that it was good and it was."
The two teams ended the first overtime period tied at 71-71 setting the stage for the second overtime.
Three Lady Mustang players finished with "double-doubles."
Grady scored a career-high 30 points and claimed 10 rebounds while blocking five shots. Wynne had 15 points and 11 rebounds while Rogers grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists. Viveca Kimble finished with eight points and hauled in 12 rebounds, a career-high for her.
Crystal Seawood also finished in double figures in rebounding with 11 to go along with eight points.
It was Seawood's two free throws that tied the game at the end of the first overtime period.
Torrie Willis added eight points and had five rebounds.
The Lady Mustangs totaled 59 rebounds in the game and had 13 turnovers.
*The Forrest City Mustangs lost for the first time in three conference games Tuesday, dropping a 60-54 decision to the Red Devils.
The loss leaves Forrest City tied with Jonesboro for the league's third place. Both teams are 3-3 in the AAAAA-East.
Jacksonville pulls into a tie for second with Blytheville, a loser to West Memphis Tuesday.
Blytheville and Jacksonville are both 4-2 in the conference.
Forrest City will travel to Jonesboro Friday to take on the Hurricane.
Jonesboro defeated Mountain Home 76-54 Tuesday night.
West Memphis leads the conference with a 6-0 mark.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots worked quickly and efficiently Tuesday night to push their 6AA Conference record to 4-2 for the year by running away from the Gillett Wolves 73-45.
The Patriots scored the first nine points of the game on their way to building a 25-9 lead after the first period.
Rashun Barnes led four Palestine-Wheatley players in double figures with 16 points. Jestin Tomblin finished with 13 points while Tony Huntley had 11 and Vince Jones added 10. Curtis Allen threw in seven points and Jesse Adams finished with six as none of the Patriot starters played an entire quarter.
By the half, the Patriots had pushed their lead to 41-23 and then opened the third quarter by scoring the first six points to push that advantage to 47-23.
With 4:06 to play in the third, the Patriots lead hit 30, at 54-24 but officials did not invoke the mercy rule until the fourth period.
Ryan Wommack led Gillett with nine points while the Noble cousins -- Jeremy, Craig and Mandril -- all finished with seven points. Daniel Smith chipped in seven as well while the fourth Noble cousin, Corbin added four points.
The Patriots improve to 6-7 overall and 4-2 in the conference. P-W will host Marvell Friday night in the annual homecoming game at Patriot Gym.
Phil Hicks scored 23 points Tuesday to lead the Junior Patriots past Gillett 58-14 in a game that finished under the mercy rule's continuous running clock.
Hicks scored 13 of his game-high points in the second period. Taylor Clark added eight points for the Junior Patriots while Matthew Parson finished with six and three Junior Patriot players -- Justin Cathy, Blake Simmons and Ricky Haggins each had four points.
Palestine-Wheatley led 31-10 at the half after outscoring Gillett 25-to-4 in the second period. By the end of the third period, P-W led 48-13.
Anthony Johnson led the junior Wolves by scoring all 14 of the team's points.
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots rallied late in Tuesday's game against Gillett but waited a little too long and suffered a pair of costly turnovers which helped the Lady Wolves take home a 57-49 win.
Gillett led 13-11 after one period and 26-17 at the half before stretching that lead to 42-29 to begin the fourth period.
That's when the Lady Patriots, 5-11, 3-3, made their own push, cutting Gillett's lead to 47-41 with 4:30 to play.
But two bad passes, which resulted in turnovers for the Lady Patriots, allowed the Lady Wolves to score a couple of quick lay ups, pushing the lead back to 53-41 with 2:07 to play.
Gillett kept their lead at 10 points for the remainder of the game and hit four straight free throws with less than a minute to play.
Kenetra Phillips led the Lady Wolves with 23 points, 10 of that coming in the third period while Ashley Reeves finished with 18. Tara Walls added eight for Gillett before fouling out late in the second half and Naomi Slater added four.
Cara Lansford led the Lady Patriots with 14 points and Bernice Sparkman had 10.
P-W's scoring leader Tonisha Wynne, who has been averaging 16 points a game, was held to just four points. Fallon Parker netted eight points for the Lady Patriots while Whitney Smith helped out with six points.
Eight of Lansford's total came in the fourth period.
Gillett is unbeaten in the conference at 6-0.
The two teams will face each other again on Thursday, Feb. 5, when Palestine-Wheatley travels to Gillett to make up a game postponed from late November.
The Forrest City Beagle Club held its inaugural meeting on Jan. 22, at the Forrest City Civic Center.
"We had a good turnout," said Claud Gaines, the club's chairperson said. "At our next meeting, we really would like to see all interested persons come out. We have a lot of work to do."
Gaines said the official name of the club would be the O.V.O.F.C. (Our Very Own Forrest City) Beagle Club and the meetings are open to beagle oweners and other interested persons.
The next meeting of the nonprofit club, will be held Thursday, Jan. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at a site to be named.
For information about the club or the meeting place, contact Gaines at 630-1025.