By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
It wasn't Tuesday night's 60-54 loss to Jacksonville that kept Forrest City Mustang coach Dwight Lofton home from school Wednesday.
"It was just a 24-hour bug or something," Lofton said this morning.
Lofton said he started feeling "a little under the weather" even before Tuesday's AAAAA-East Conference clash got under way at Jacksonville's Devils' Den.
While the loss to the Red Devils may not have caused Lofton's one-day sick leave, it might have punctuated it just a little.
"It was just the usual fight between two teams who always go at each other tough," Lofton said. "It came down to the final 40 minutes and it could have gone either way. We had our chances to make the plays."
With Jacksonville leading 56-50, Forrest City scored four unanswered points to get within two at 56-54. With a chance to tie, Mustang senior center, Buck Braddock missed a three footer with 20 seconds to play and Forrest City had to start fouling.
Jacksonville hit their free throws to put the game away.
Jacksonville led 15-12 after one period and 35-28 at the half. The Mustangs closed to within five to start the fourth period at 45-40.
What the victory meant for the Red Devils was a tie for second place in the conference with Blytheville. Both teams are 4-2.
The loss meant dropping to 3-3 in the league for the Mustangs and into a tie for third with Jonesboro, who just happens to be Friday's opponent.
The Mustangs go to Hurricane Gym.
"Just another crucial conference game for us," Lofton said. "But from this point on, each game is crucial."
In the past seven games played at Jonesboro, Lofton-coached Mustang teams are 3-4.
"The way I see it is that now, the race for the conference top four spots into the state tournament is a five-team affair," Lofton said. "West Memphis, Blytheville, Jacksonville, Jonesboro and us. And right now, Jonesboro is on a big roll."
Searcy, Cabot and Mountain Home all have at least four conference losses or more, which may be too much ground to make up.
Junior guard Sherman Allen led Forrest City Tuesday with 14 points while junior forward Chris Williams finished with 12 points. Senior Lorenzo Spearmon, with Jacksonville senior guard Bretrick Miles defending the entire game, finishing with just nine points.
"I think Spearmon had a bad game," Lofton said. "The Jacksonville defender did a good job but I'm not sure that Spearmon ever got into the flow of the game."
In girls' play on Friday, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs will take on the surging Jonesboro Lady Hurricane, who are unbeaten in the conference.
The Lady Mustangs are coming off an 80-75 double overtime win over Jacksonville Tuesday.
Jonesboro is coming off a scary 58-51 win over Mountain Home.
The Lady Hurricane, winners of eight straight games, have not lost since Dec. 13, at the McDonald's Shootout.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Calvary Christian Eagles basketball team went 3-3 in games played from Jan. 12 through Jan. 26.
The Eagles defeated Grace Christian, CHE and Thrifthaven of Memphis while suffering losses to Westminster, Faith Heritage and Central Baptist.
Luke Myers scored 13 points in the team's 51-47 win over Grace Christian and got plenty of scoring help from Kyle Smith (12), Nathan Myers (11), Trey Baldwin (7), Adam Hillis (6) and Chad Phillips (2).
Against Christian Home Educators (CHE) Smith finished with 23 points and Jason Cantrell added 14 in a 69-60 win. Trey Baldwin helped out with 12 points while Hillis finished with 11 and Luke Myers chipped in nine points.
On Saturday, the Eagles got 16 points from Cantrell to lead the way for a 68-28 win over Thrifthaven. Kyle Smith added 13 while Taylor Myers had 12, Luke Myers added 11 and Nathan Myers had nine. Baldwin finished with four and Hillis added three.
In the 51-45 loss to Westminster, Smith led the Eagles with 24 points while Hillis provided 13.
Smith had 20 points and Cantrell added 16 as the Eagles lost 67-48 to Faith Heritage.
The Eagles fell to Central 55-29 last week. Cantrell led with 11 points while Smith had seven and Baldwin five.
The Calvary Lady Eagles played only twice in the past two weeks, losing to Central Baptist 74-12 and defeating Westminster 19-14.
Hannah McMahand scored nine points to lead the way for the win over Westminster. Danielle Howard helped out with five while Katie McNair added three.
In the loss to Central, Meredith Borden scored seven points and Amber Hart added four.
The Calvary Junior High Eagles finished 2-3 in games played the past two weeks.
The junior boys defeated Faith Heritage 28-23 and CHE 44-40 while losing to Westminster 39-23, Southwest Christian Academy 38-34 and Central Baptist 43-22.
Seth Smith scored 14 points in the win over Faith Heritage while getting help from Nathan Myers and Chad Phillips, with four points each and two points each from Weatherford, Burks and Hunter McMahand.
Nathan Myers scored 19 points in the win over CHE while Smith added 14.
Against Westminster, Smith finished with nine points while Nathan Myers had seven. Myers led with 11 points in the loss to SW Christian while Smith had nine, Taylor Myers and McMahand had four points each.
Smith led with 12 points in the loss to Central.
In three games played recently, the Calvary JV girls finished 0-3, losing to Westminster 25-12, Southwest Christian Academy 35-22 and Central Baptist 56-12.
Borden had 19 of Calvary's 22 points in the loss to SW Christian Academy while Summer Hess had two.
Borden had eight in the loss to Westminster while Courtney Burns and Hess finished with two points each. Borden led with six in the game against Central.
In three recently played games, the Calvary elementary boys finished 2-1, taking victories over Thrifthaven and Westminster and losing to Central.
In that loss, William Burks and Seth Smith each finished with 12 points while Fletcher Myers added two points.
Seth Smith scored 31 of the teams total points in a 54-20 win over Thrifthaven.
Myers helped out with 12 while Burks finished with seven and Josh Halford and Blake Lester each had two.
In the 25-24 win over Westminster, Smith scored 13 points while Burks had 10.
The elementary girls picked up a win over Thrifthaven but lost to Central and Westminster to finish 1-2 in the teams last three games.
Summer Hess scored nine points in the 29-12 win over Thrifthaven while Taylor Padgett had eight and Kristen Heard helped with four. April Nichols, Mercury Clay, Mary Burks and Katie Borden all scored two points in the win.
Padgett, Hess and Burks all had four points in the teams 34-14 loss to Westminster while Burks had six in the 30-9 loss to Central.
Calvary will host the Lord's Ranch and Southwest Christian Friday, Jan. 30, for homecoming activities.
The Forrest City Junior Mustangs and Junior Lady Mustangs have an open date tonight but the remainder of the six AAAAA-East junior high teams will all be in action.
The Junior Mustangs defeated West Memphis Wonder Monday to improve to 11-2 and 7-1 to remain in a tie for first place with Jonesboro MacArthur.
Tonight, Jonesboro Annie Camp will host WMemphis East; West Memphis Wonder travels to Blytheville and MacArthur will host West Memphis West.
by Walter Scott
A recent article appearing in the local newspaper about boy scouts going on a winter camping trip brought back memories of my own youthful camping excursions into the winter weather.
Dick, who is my neighbor, and I, viewed ourselves as outdoorsmen from an early age.
We participated in all types of outdoors activities, regardless of the weather.
Camping was high on our list, since it took us into the wild, giving us a chance to commune with nature, so to speak, but more importantly to be completely out of sight of adult supervision.
While camping, we often would imagine ourselves as frontiersmen, living off the land. We ate what nature provided, and surprisingly, did not die from those things we ate.
Our outdoor experiences slowed dramatically as winter closed in on northern Iowa. Hunting seasons were past, and sitting around the house was unacceptable.
One Friday afternoon, during the long bus ride home from school, Dick and I decided a winter camping trip was just what we needed. We figured it would be invigorating to be out in the below freezing temperatures and we could see what it was like to be on Donner's Pass.
We could survive all weekend, drinking melted snow and eating what we could catch.
We made quick work of getting our supplies ready before dark and we set up camp in the wilderness. It was only a quarter of a mile from Dick's house, but it was the best we could do for wilderness in those days.
I was the proud owner of a pup tent, which, at the time, I thought was quite the luxury suite. It was one of the fancy models with extra room at one end to store things during the night, such as coats.
It was not the top of the line model with a floor, which proved a bit annoying during summer camping trips when extraneous critters could get inside the tent.
During the winter, we did not have problems with snakes or rodents coming in to get out of the cold, but the wind did blow underneath the edges as if there were no sides.
After setting up the tent, we built a fire and set up camp. It was dark before we finished the job and thought about getting something to eat.
We crawled into the tent to plan our survival strategy. It was then we discovered the snow inside the tent was just as deep as outside. We scooped the snow out and piled it around the edges of the tent to slow the breeze blowing through. We set two cups of snow by the fire to provide drinking water while we discussed dinner plans.
There was a barn just up the hill where we could catch a few pigeons. They would be filling, but it was cold outside and we knew we would have to climb to the top of the barn to get them.
There was Dick's trap line which provided the possibility that he could catch a muskrat or something that would provide food for the evening and most of the next day.
There was also the possibility he might not catch anything at all and we could wander all over the farm until we froze to death.
We drank the melted snow and hoped that food would fall from the sky so we would not have to brave the cold to go get it.
Nothing fell from the sky -- except more snow and drinking melted snow was not very filling.
We finally decided to skip hunting for something to eat and wait until morning. We crawled into our sleeping bags and tried to sleep.
We did not need the extra storage area at the head of the tent because we needed our coats, and everything else we had with us, to keep from freezing.
About midnight, we came to the foregone conclusion that we were going to die if we stayed where we were.
We were cold and hungry and nothing was going to improve unless we gave up and went home.
Chagrined, we broke camp and made the long cold trek back to Dick's house.
Our spirits were lifted immediately when Dick's mother met us with warm food.
We were not quite the outdoorsmen we thought we were, but we could live with that fact just to be warm again.