By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
WEST MEMPHIS -- The Forrest City Junior Mustangs ran their win streak to four games Thursday with a punishing 65-39 win over West Memphis West.
Forrest City improves to 7-2 overall on the season and 3-1 in the AAAAA-East Conference.
In conference play, the Junior Mustangs are 1-1 in two road games and 2-0 at home.
"The key to the conference season is to get those road wins," said Forrest City Coach Jimmy Williams.
For the next three games, that is something the Junior Mustangs won't have to worry about. Williams' team will play the next three games at home against Blytheville, Jonesboro Annie Camp and West Memphis East.
Thursday night, the Junior Mustangs opened an 18-9 lead after the first quarter and led 30-22 at the half.
They started the final quarter up 47-30.
Marcus Britt led all scorers with 26 points while Stephon Weaver, in his new assist role for the team, added 18 points. Kelson Stewart finished with 11 and Rylan Nimocks had six points. Terrell Lee did not score but had five steals and four defensive rebounds which led directly to Forrest City points in the transition game.
Every Junior Mustang player saw action.
*The MacArthur junior boys boosted their record to 8-2 overall Thursday night, taking a 43-28 conference victory over West Memphis Wonder.
MacArthur was seldom challenged throughout the game, taking a 15-8 lead after the first quarter and a 21-12 lead at the halftime break.
For MacArthur (4-1 AAAAA-East), Logan Nutt led the way with 17 points, while Jeremy Thomas added 12.
MacArthur also won the eighth-grade game 28-15.
*After falling behind 7-6 at the end of a quarter, Annie Camp went on a 31-7 run over the next two frames and coasted past Blytheville 46-37 Thursday in junior boys' basketball.
Annie Camp used a 15-0 second quarter to lead 21-7 at halftime and outscored the Chickasaws 16-7 in the third frame.
LaDustin Williams scored 17 points, while Chris Park and Murray Venton each added 10 for the Whirlwinds (6-4, 1-3 AAAAA-East).
Blytheville won the eighth-grade game 45-24.
Blytheville comes to Forrest City on Monday, Jan. 12.
The Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs are still searching for their first AAAAA-East Conference win.
Thursday night, at West Memphis West, the Junior Lady Mustangs dropped to 4-5 overall and 0-4 in the league, losing to West 46-35.
"The overall effort was much better than it was in Monday's home loss (a 34-21 setback against Jonesboro MacArthur), that's for sure," said Forrest City Coach Jacky England. "The girls played hard. Starting 0-4 in conference wasn't what we had in mind at the start of the year."
Fareeda Washington led Forrest City with 12 points while Bookita Vaughn added seven and Matisha Dobbins finished with five.
The Forrest City eighth-grade girls got eight points from Cassandra Jackson and six from Vaughn in a 26-19 win over West's eighth-grade to improve to 3-1 for the year with one game left to be played.
*Annie Camp fell to 3-8 on the season with a 35-29 loss to Blytheville in junior high girls' basketball Thursday night.
The Lady Whirlwinds (3-8, 1-3 AAAAA-East) were led by Nathashia LaGrone with 10 points as Annie Camp trailed 11-7 at the half.
*West Memphis Wonder defeated MacArthur 39-34 Thursday in junior girls' basketball at Cyclone Gym.
Anna Kaloghirou scored 13 points to pace Annie Camp (6-4, 3-2 AAAAA-East), which fell behind 12-6 after a quarter.
The Lady Whirlwinds trailed 21-16 at halftime and 34-25 after three quarters.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The AAAAA-East Conference wars begin in earnest tonight. In other words, it is time to "get busy."
For Forrest City, it means a home game against Cabot while elsewhere around the league it will be Mountain Home at Blytheville, Jacksonville at Jonesboro and West Memphis at Searcy.
It is the league opener for both Forrest City squads as it is for Cabot.
The Lady Panthers bring a 10-1 record into Mustang Arena to face Sue Jayroe's 4-9 Lady Mustangs.
The Cabot Panthers are 3-9 facing the 8-4 Mustangs.
Forrest City has never lost to Cabot at home under eighth-season coach Dwight Lofton. The Mustangs have won six of their last seven games.
There is no junior varsity game and the senior girls are scheduled to tip at 6 p.m., followed by the senior boys at approximately 7:30 p.m.
*The Mountain Home Bombers start the conference season with a 4-9 mark against a 10-2 Blytheville ball club. Mountain Home has lost seven of their last eight games.
Jacksonville, led by Arkansas State signee Mike Smith, will be looking to take a big lead over the rest of the conference teams, by picking up their second win tonight at Jonesboro.
The Red Devils held off Searcy Tuesday and are 1-0 in the league.
West memphis is playing at Searcy tonight, it's first conference game of the year.
The Mountain Home Lady Bombers are off to a quick 8-4 start as they make the trip to Blytheville tonight.
The Lady Bombers are looking for a return trip to the Class AAAAA State Tournament and a longer stay this time around.
Mountain Home lost to Watson Chapel in the first round of the state playoffs a year ago.
Mountain Home's only losses have been to some very talented squads in Fort Smith Northside (8-4), Little Rock Parkview (11-1), Mountain View (12-4) and Harrison (5-5). That's a combined record of 36-14.
The Blytheville girls are 4-4 on the year, led by 6-1 post player Whitney Jones, who is averaging 20 points a game and Kenya Moore, who is contributing about the same per game.
The Searcy girls (9-4) opened the conference season on Tuesday by defeating Jacksonville.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Calvary Christian Eagles returned from the holiday break to down Grace Christian School on Monday 40-34.
Jason Cantrell led the scoring with 15 points while Kyle Smith helped out with 14. Adam Hillis and Luke Myers had four points apiece and Trey Baldwin added three.
On Tuesday, the Calvary elementary girls basketball team suffered a 20-8 loss to Westminster Christian Academy.
Katie Bordan had four points for Calvary while Kaitlyn Hill and Summer Hess had two points each.
William Burks scored 10 points Tuesday to lead the Calvary elementary Eagles to a 21-11 win over Westminster. Seth Smith chipped in seven points while Fletcher Myers and Cody Oliver had two points each.
Before the Christmas break, the Calvary Lady Eagles lost to Memphis Home Education Association 63-20. Elisabeth Ragsdale had seven points for Calvary while Beth Huckaba and Danielle Howard finished with four points.
Kyle Smith's 17 points wasn't enough for the Calvary Eagles in their 51-41 loss to MHEA. Cantrell canned 10 points while Baldwin had four.
The elementary Calvary girls lost to Ridgefield Christian Academy before the holiday break 40-7 while the elementary boys suffered a 30-20 loss to the same team. Seth Smith led Calvary with 16 of the team's 20 points. Burks added two.
On Dec. 12, Westminster defeated the Calvary junior girls 30-7 and then put away the CCS junior boys 43-30.
Ragsdale led Calvary with five points while Smith scored 12 in the junior boys' game.
In the senior high games, Westminster clipped the CCS Lady Eagles 21-18 and edged the varsity boys 57-56.
Katie Mcnair had nine points for the Lady Eagles while Amber Hart had seven.
Kyle Smith scored 37 points in the one-point loss to Westminster while Cantrell added seven points and Nathan Myers had four.