By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
There will be many new high school basketball state champions crowned Friday and Saturday.
All of the 10 high school state championship matchups (five boys and five girls) are set and the teams are headed to North Little Rock's Alltel Arena.
For some, the trip will be nothing more than a short drive. For others the drive will be long enough.
There won't be many repeat champions this time around since nine of last year's 10 state champs won't even be at Alltel this weekend.
The only defending state championship team making a repeat journey to the state finals is Altheimer, the Class AA boys defending title holders.
Missing in action from the boys championships this time around are Class AAAAA defending champions Pine Bluff, Class AAAA Little Rock Fair, Class AAA Pulaski Academy and Class A Weiner.
Missing from the girls' side are Class AAAAA West Memphis, Class AAAA Morrilton, Class AAA DeQueen, Class AA Poyen and Class A Guy-Perkins, who didn't even qualify for the state tournament this time around.
Quite possibly, the biggest matchup of the weekend will be for the Class AAAAA boys state championship, when North Little Rock and West Memphis meet on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at North Little Rock's Alltel Arena.
That matchup, which almost seemed destined to happen from the first day of the Class AAAAA state tournament, was solidified on Saturday when West Memphis' Desma McCoy scored 17 points in West Memphis' 42-27 victory over Fort Smith Southside.
The Blue Devils have not lost since losing two games last November at the Rumble on the Ridge Tournament played at Forrest City and are the No. 1 seed from the AAAAA-East.
In the second AAAAA semifinal game, Matthew Monroe's last-second 6-foot jumper lifted North Little Rock to a 45-44 win over Fort Smith Southside.
The trip to Alltel will be extremely brief for both Little Rock Mills and Sylvan Hills, both former members of the AAAAA-East Conference, when the two powers go toe-to-toe in the Class AAAA state championship game, Friday at 8:45 p.m.
Gabriel Moore scored 17 points to lead Mills to a 51-38 victory over Morrilton on Saturday while Sylvan Hills took a 58-51 win over North Pulaski in the semifinals played at Beebe.
It is the first-ever trip to the state basketball finals for Sylvan Hills.
The Bears are scheduled to return to the AAAAA-East Conference in the fall.
In Class AAA, the unexpected happened Saturday when two-time defending state champions Pulaski Academy disintegrated in their semifinal game against East Poinsett County and lost.
It was the first and only loss of the year for the Bruins, who won the Rumble on the Ridge tournament.
EPC, behind University of Arkansas signee Marcus Monk, rolled to a rather easy 21-point win over Pulaski Academy to set up Saturday's 3 p.m., championship game against Osceola, a semifinal winner over Gosnell, who had beaten Osceola three out of four times this past season.
EPC's win ended PA's 55-game win streak, which dated back to last season. PA finishes at 34-1.
Saturday's championship game will be the fourth meeting of the year between EPC and Osceola
EPC brings a 34-1 record into the final and owns three previous victories over Osceola.
In the second semifinal game, East Poinsett County ended Pulaski Academy's bid for a third straight title with a 52-31 victory.
EPC lost to Lonoke a year ago in the semifinals. They have never won a state basketball title.
Osceola, on the other hand, won state titles in 1977, '79, 2001 and 2002.
The Class AA boys title game, set for Friday at 5:15 p.m., is the only one of the 10 finals to have a repeat player, in Altheimer, last year's state champion.
The Red Devils, winners of the 6AA Conference will face Turrell, led by Addius Cooper and Tevin Dixon. Turrell ran past Melbourne in Saturday's Class AA semifinal action while the Red Devils defeated Charleston for the chance to win back-to-back state titles.
There has not been a repeat winner in the AA boys title game since 1992 and 1993 when Buffalo Island Central won two straight championships.
Altheimer is led by Brandon Patterson and James Rice under first-year coach Cortez Lee.
Turrell won state titles in 1999 and 2000.
In Class A, tiny Waldo will be trying for the second straight year, to win its first-ever state title when they meet McNeil Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
Waldo lost to Weiner in the state championship game last year.
McNeil won state titles in 1976, '77 and 1988.
Waldo got to Saturday's final by turning back Kingston while McNeil ran past Guy-Perkins.
Cabot and Little Rock Parkview are two more teams that do not have far to get to their championship matchup in the Class AAAAA girls title game on Saturday.
A Cabot win could give the AAAAA-East Conference it second straight state champion and it would be the first state title for the Lady Panthers.
A year ago, the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils won the title.
Parkview defeated Fort Smith Northside 60-51 and Cabot defeated Mountain Home 58-51 Saturday to set up the Alltel meeting.
A year ago, Parkview failed to make it past the first round of the AAAAA state while Cabot was ousted in the second round.
Saturday's semifinal game was an All AAAAA-East affair between Cabot and Mountain Home.
In Class AAAA semifinal action on Saturday, Vilonia defeated Arkadelphia 67-58 and Harrison defeated Siloam Springs 74-55.
Harrison returns to the Class AAAA final after being upended a year ago by Hot Springs in the semifinals after winning three consecutive state titles.
Rose Loyd sent Vilonia to the championship game, set for Saturday at 8:15 p.m., by scoring 42 points in the semifinal win over Arkadelphia. Vilonia's last title came in 1993.
In the Class AAA semifinals, Ozark defeated De Queen 41-37 and Farmington beat Fordyce, 38-24.
The championship game will be played Friday at 7 p.m., and is a rematch of the 1998 title game, in when Ozark defeated Farmington.
Ozark won state titles in 1998, 2000 and 2001.
DeQueen was the defending state champ.
Farmington is back in the championship game for a second straight year and still looking for their first state title.
In Class AA semifinal action, Saturday, Valley Springs defeated Parkers Chapel 44-43 and Harding Academy defeated Union 40-33 to set up their title game Saturday at 4:45 p.m.
Harding Academy lost to Union in last year's semifinals.
Last year's champion, Poyen, failed to qualify for the state tournament field this past season.
Valley Springs won the girls' state title in 1994.
Finally, in the Class A semifinals, Rural Special defeated Weiner and Wickes defeated Scranton to set up the Class A girls' final Friday, at 3:30 p.m.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Rain swept across the state are on Friday and washed away several scheduled prep softball and baseball games as well as Saturday's tournament at Marion and West Memphis.
Losing out to Mother Nature on Friday were the Forrest City Lady Mustang and Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriot softball teams, who were scheduled to play each other.
The Lady Mustangs will now begin their season today at Blytheville and will play Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The game with P-W will be played April 2 at the Sports Complex.
The Lady Patriots will open at DeWitt, Tuesday at 4 p.m.
The P-W Patriot baseball team, which lost its scheduled opener to rain last Thursday, will now open Tuesday when they host Clarendon at 4 p.m.
Last Thursday's game against Barton will be played Thursday, March 11, at 4 p.m.
Palestine-Wheatley will resume its spring sports schedule on March 23, following Spring Break the week of March 15-19.
The Mustang baseball team, 1-1 for the year, is scheduled to play a junior varsity game today at the Sports Complex against West Memphis, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
The Polar Bear Classic Tournament, which was scheduled for Saturday at Marion and at West Memphis, which included the Mustangs, was rained out.
The Mustangs will play at Osceola on Tuesday and will host Marion Wednesday.
RUSTON -- For the second straight year, Louisiana Tech's Erica Smith-Taylor, formerly of Palestine-Wheatley, has been named to the five-person Western Athletic Conference's All-defensive Team.
Smith-Taylor was also named to the All-WAC Second Team.
La Tech senior Amisha Carter was named the WAC Player of the Year and Lady Techster Coach Budke was named Coach of the Year
Carter led the Western Athletic Conference in both scoring and rebounding which helped lead the Lady Techsters to their third straight conference regular season title.
For Budke, it was his second straight WAC Coach of the Year Award after guiding the Lady Techsters to a 24-2 overall record and a 17-1 mark in conference play.
Senior forward Trina Frierson joined Carter on the league's All-WAC first team while guard Amber Obaze joined Smith-Taylor on the All-WAC second team.
Joining Smith-Taylor on the All defensive team were Obaze and Carter. It marked the third straight year that Obaze was named to the all-defensive squad.
It is Smith-Taylor's second time to be named to the second team all-WAC. She averaged 12.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 3.5 assists per contest.
The Wheatley, Ark., native scored in double digits 19 times during the year while also recording three double doubles.
Carter started all 26 games for Tech this season, averaging 17.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 54 percent from the field. The 6-foot-2-inch Carter led the WAC in double doubles.
Obaze averaged 12.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.1 steals per game while hitting 46 percent of her field goals and 78 percent of her free throws. Obaze was named second-team all-WAC for the second consecutive season.
Carter is Louisiana Tech's 14th conference player of the year in the last 17 seasons.
*Louisiana Tech is the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Lady Techsters will play Wednesday at 2 p.m., against either
No. 8 Hawaii vs. No. 9 Boise State.