By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
MARVELL -- The Marvell lady Mustangs made it two in a row over the Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots Tuesday night.
The Lady Mustangs defeated P-W a year ago in the quarterfinals of the 6AA District Tournament and went on to finish second.
Tuesday night, Marvell sank 5-of-10 free throw attempts to hold off the Lady Patriots 49-44 in the 6AA conference opener for both teams at Marvell.
Before losing to Marvell in last season's district tournament, the Lady Patriots had defeated Marvell 11 straight times, dating back to the 1998-99 season.
Palestine-Wheatley made it to the free throw line just twice -- both times in the first quarter.
"The free throws were definitely one difference," said P-W Coach Lanny Allen, "But Marvell has improved. They have everyone back from last year's team and have a lot of senior leadership on the floor. We are young and inexperienced but we are getting better."
The loss leaves the Lady Patriots at 1-8 for the year and 0-1 in the conference.
Marvell opened a quick 12-2 lead in the first four minutes of the opening quarter, but P-W rallied to close out the first quarter scoring with an 8-to-3 run to trail 15-10.
Marvell maintained a six-point lead at the half.
Bernice Sparkman led the Lady Patriots with 16 points while Tonisha Wynne helped out with 11 points. Cara Lansford and Whitney Smith each finished with six points and Fallon Parker had five.
The Lady Patriots will host Clarendon Friday at Patriot Gym.
The Junior Lady Patriots will start the three-game set at 5 p.m. P-W's junior girls have not played in more than month.
*The Palestine-Wheatley Patriots needed overtime to take a conference-opening win over Marvell Tuesday night.
It was the first game for the Patriots since Dec. 19.
Tied at 58, after Marvell held the ball for the last 10 seconds of regulation, the Patriots rolled to a 70-65 win in the overtime period.
The Patriots improve to 4-5 overall and 1-0 in the 6AA Conference.
Marvell appeared to be looking for the game-winning shot after taking possession with 20 seconds left in regulation. After several passes, Marvell decided to hold the ball for the final 10 seconds to force overtime.
Senior Justin Tomblin led the way for the Patriots with his defensive play while Rashun Barnes hit some key free throws late in the game to help the Patriot's cause.
Head coach Terry Clardy said his team worked out of some "early foul trouble and stayed focused in rallying to win the game."
In junior boys action, Raphael Williams scored 25 points to lead the Junior Patriots to a win over Marvell's junior boys.
Phil Hicks added 19 points for Palestine-Wheatley while Taylor Clark chipped in with 13 points.
The Junior Patriots improve to 6-2 overall for the year and stand at 1-0 in the league.
Palestine-Wheatley will host Clarendon Friday night and will entertain Barton on Tuesday, Jan. 13, in 6AA Conference action.
Marvell will play Gillett on Friday, Barton will be at Elaine and Altheimer will play at Crawfordsville.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
SEARCY -- A last-minute letdown by Searcy led to a last-second steal and layup by Jacksonville, sending the Lions to 58-54 loss in the AAAAA-East Conference opener for both teams.
Jacksonville reserve guard Dean Neely made a backcourt steal and converted the layup with less than 10 seconds to go.
The Red Devils rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final 4:46.
Searcy coach Roger Franks had no comment following the loss for the Lions (8-7, 0-1). The outcome spoiled the return of Lions' post player Brad Lewis, who finished with 20 points.
Jacksonville got out to an early lead in the first quarter but a pair of free throws and a bucket by Lewis tied the game at 8 going into the second quarter.
Searcy held a 25-21 cushion at the half.
Jacksonville's full-court press and a dunk by Arkansas State signee Mike Smith, got the Red Devils' within three points, 50-47, with 2:42 remaining.
The Red Devils led 57-54 with less than a minute left.
The Red Devils improve to 5-8 overall and 1-0 in the conference.
Guard Bretrick Miles added 14 points to help Smith.
Kyle Wray and Brandon Lynch finished with 14 points apiece for Searcy.
The remaining AAAAA-East teams will start conference play Friday.
Forrest City will host Cabot, Mountain Home travels to Blytheville and Jonesboro goes to Jacksonville and West Memphis will play at Searcy.
*At Earle, shooting guard Michael Conners hit six straight free throws to lift the Bulldogs to an 81-78 win over Hughes Tuesday in 3AA South Conference play.
Earle improves to 5-8 for the year and 1-3 in the conference.
The Blue Devils got 25 points from David Dowden in the loss after leading by eight at the half and by 12 midway through the third period.
Earle got within 76-74 with a minute to play in the game.
Johnny Williams led Earle with 35 points while Bobby Moody poured in 24 points.
In other senior boys games played Tuesday, it was the Little Rock Central Tigers over Bryant 50-30 and Marianna edging past Central Arkansas Christian 47-41.
*In senior girls action Tuesday, Searcy's Lady Lions improved to 6-8 for the year and 1-0 in the league by turning back Jacksonville 58-40 Tuesday night.
Jacksonville, led by Becky Townsend and Justine Rial with 15 points each, climbed back to within four when Rial nailed a 3-pointer to make it 16-12 but that was as close as the Lady Devils would ever get.
Jacksonville was shut out for the final 3:43 of the first half and a 3-pointer by Amber Dunlap in the last minute gave Searcy a 28-14 lead at halftime.
Dunlap had six rebounds to lead Searcy in that category and Allyson Middleton pulled down five. Dunlap and Parker both had four assists.
Searcy's Kasey Bartee led the way with 14 points while junior center Laura Giezman added 12 and Kristen Parker chipped in 11 points.
The Lady Lions turned the ball over just 11 times during the game.
In other girls' games played Tuesday, it was the Earle Lady Bulldogs taking a win over the Hughes Lady Blue Devils in 3AA South play; Carlisle's Lady Bison over Des Arc 57-36; CAC, behind 24 points from Whitney Zachariason, put away Marianna 68-32; Conway defeated LR McClellan 39-31; Lonoke got past Bald Knob 40-33 and the Pulaski Academy Lady Bruins, 10-3 for the year, downed Brinkley 65-24.
The Hughes teams will host Parkin on Friday, beginning at 5 p.m., with a junior boys game.
AAAAA-East Conference
Senior Boys Conf O/all
Jacksonville 1-0 5-8
Blytheville 0-0 9-2
Jonesboro 0-0 9-3
Forrest City 0-0 8-4
Mt. Home 0-0 4-7
West Memphis 0-0 2-2
Cabot 0-0 1-6
Searcy 0-1 8-7
Tuesday's Score
Jacksonville 58, Searcy 54
Senior Girls Conf O/all
Searcy 1-0 6-8
Cabot 0-0 10-1
Jonesboro 0-0 8-5
Mt. Home 0-0 6-4
West Memphis 0-0 6-5
Blytheville 0-0 4-4
Forrest City 0-0 4-9
Jacksonville 0-1 2-3
Tuesday's Score
Searcy 58, Jacksonville 40
Friday, January 9
Cabot at Forrest City
Jonesboro at Jacksonville
West Memphis at Searcy
Mt. Home at Blytheville
by Walter Scott
There is a recurring problem immediately after deer season.
What do we do with all the deer?
After all, a person can only eat so much deer meat in a years time.
My family and my hunting buddies have tried several solutions, none without one or more drawbacks.
One year we took a bunch of deer to a friend's house to butcher. None of the members of the hunting party has had any experience with butchering, but as I always say, how hard could it be?
He had a nice basement and had brought his picnic table inside for the winter. We had a good work surface and we could hang deer from the floor joists for skinning and boning.
He even had a grinder we used to make hamburger.
Between late afternoon and approximately 2 a.m., eight hunters turned several deer into steaks, roasts, and burgers.
Some packages of meat even resembled the cut of meat as it was labeled.
We were exhausted and made a heck of a mess. We were not invited back the next year, or ever again, to butcher deer in our buddy's basement.
One year, the weather turned nasty on the afternoon of our last day to hunt. What had been a pleasant winter afternoon suddenly turned into a raging blizzard.
We broke camp in record time, taking almost all the supplies. I went back in March to get the beef stew that was forgotten.
I was not as concerned about the stew, as my wife was about wanting her pan.
It was not a pretty sight. As we hastily left camp that afternoon, we decided all the deer would be loaded into my truck, and I could take it all to the locker plant.
I made the treacherous trip with one of the guys riding shotgun in the blinding storm without incident.
The locker plant was a madhouse as hunters from the area tried to get in while they still could. The workers were getting to their limit as the storm worsened and the numbers mounted. In my haste to drop the deer and get home, I had all the deer made into summer sausage and jerky and put under my name.
The next week, the kind folks at the locker called to tell me the deer was ready and That my bill was $900.
I delivered deer sausage and jerky in record time while racing the check to the bank.
One year a neighbor called to let us know he could not hunt that year. We were welcomed to hunt his place and if we did not mind, provide him with a nice fat doe.
Those offers are hard to pass up. It is a good year when we can get all the deer we want and give some away to others who want them.
This year, we had a successful hunt, both in food brought home and giving away the extra portions.
I did notice when I was loading the ones to go to the locker, that three of them had strange cuts on their backs.
I did not look closely or think much about it until my friend Damon brought me some jerky.
I knew his deer had been sent to the locker so I asked where he had gotten the meat.
It seems on Saturday night while most of the group was talking over the day's hunt, Damon went out and removed the loins from the first three deer on the meat pole.
I will not divulge whose deer came back without tenderloin steaks -- but the jerky made from those loins is delicious.