By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
FORREST CITY -- Prep basketball in the county, for the most part, is off and running.
For those teams not quite running yet, they will be by the end of the week.
Monday night, the Forrest City Lady Mustangs gave a solid effort in their season-opener at the Mount St. Mary's Heavenly Hoops tournament. However, the effort fell just short of a win.
The El Dorado Lady Cats held off the Lady Mustangs 64-58 in the tournament's first round.
Forrest City will return on Wednesday to play AAAAA-East Conference foe Jacksonville at 4 p.m.
"The kids played hard," said first-year Lady Mustang Coach Jacky England. "El Dorado was big and quick but our girls never backed away and never gave in."
Senior Sequoria Grady led the Lady Mustangs with 17 points, eight rebounds and had four blocked shots before fouling out with just over a minute to play in the game.
Sophomore guard Fareeda Washington, in her first high school game, finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, eight of those on the offensive end of the floor. Shari Rogers and Viveca Kimble each added 10 points while LaShundra Rogers had nine.
Forrest City had the lead when Grady picked up her third personal foul late in the second quarter and went to the bench.
"That was the turning point," England said. "El Dorado, being the good team they are, took advantage and grabbed the lead."
The Lady Cats were up 38-30 at the half and went up by as many as 12 points early in the fourth period before Forrest City began to chip their way back, cutting El Dorado's lead to two points late in the final frame.
"We had the looks we just couldn't get the shots to fall," England said. "When we had to start fouling, the hit their free throws."
The Lady Mustangs shot 38 percent overall for the game -- 31 percent from the three-point arc and 41 percent from two-point range.
"We need to get that to 40 percent or better for a game," England said. "If we can shoot 40 percent, we can win some games."
From the foul line, the Lady Mustangs shot 63 percent and the team had 18 turnovers.
"That's not bad,"England added, "considering El Dorado pressed us from the opening tip. They hugged Sequoria like a glove."
Jacksonville lost to Russellville 54-45 on Monday.
Russellville and El Dorado will hook up at 8:30 p.m., Wednesday.
In other games Monday, it was Watson Chapel holding off Sylvan Hills 61-42 while Mount St. Mary's was 10-points better than North Pulaski, winning 61-51.
The tournament will conclude on Saturday with the championship round games.
Calvary Christian School opened play Friday as the Eagles and Lady Eagles posted wins over Pathway Christian from Blytheville.
The senior girls and boys teams, along with the elementary Eagles, will host the Pulaski County Homeschool teams tonight at Calvary, beginning at 6 p.m.
The Palestine-Wheatley junior high teams opened play at the Wheatley Invitational Tournament and it was the Junior Patriots defeating Cross County in the finals played Saturday.
The Junior Lady Patriots finished second, losing to Brinkley in the girls' finals.
Tonight, the P-W junior girls, senior girls and senior boys as P-W hosted Cross County.
The Forrest City Lady Mustangs opened play Monday at the Heavenly Hoops Tournament at Mount St. Mary's in Little Rock.
The Lady Mustangs will play their second tournament game Wednesday against either Jacksonville or Russellville before opening at home on Friday against Marianna.
The Mustang senior boys team will play at Little Rock Central Thursday night and will host Marianna Friday.
The Forrest City junior high basketball teams are scheduled to open the season Thursday with a road game at Earle.
Hughes was scheduled to play Tuesday at Earle.
The eighth Forrest City Grocery/Rumble on the Ridge boys' basketball tournament will be played Nov. 25-27, at Mustang Arena. England thinks his Lady Mustangs have a chance at finishing fourth in the tournament.
"That's the best we can do, after losing the opener, but our next two games are very winnable games for us," England said. "We played, in my mind, the best team in the tournament and played them to six points."
A win over Jacksonville Wednesday would put the Lady Mustangs against either Sylvan Hills or North Pulaski in Saturday's fourth-place game.
Jacksonville lost to Russellville 54-45 on Monday.
Russellville and El Dorado will hook up at 8:30 p.m., Wednesday.
In other games Monday, it was Watson Chapel holding off Sylvan Hills 61-42 while Mount St. Mary's was 10-points better than North Pulaski, winning 61-51.
The tournament will conclude on Saturday with the championship round games.
Outside the tournament, the Lady Mustangs will play their home opener Friday against Marianna at Mustang Arena.
*Calvary Christian School opened play Friday as the Eagles and Lady Eagles posted wins over Pathway Christian from Blytheville.
The senior girls and boys teams, along with the elementary Eagles, will host the Pulaski County Homeschool teams tonight at Calvary, beginning at 6 p.m.
*The Palestine-Wheatley junior high teams opened play at the Wheatley Invitational Tournament and it was the Junior Patriots defeating Cross County in the finals played Saturday.
The Junior Lady Patriots finished second, losing to Brinkley in the girls' finals.
Tonight, the P-W junior girls, senior girls and senior boys will host Cross County at Patriot Gym..
*The Forrest City Mustangs will play at Little Rock Central Thursday night and will host Marianna Friday.
The Forrest City junior high basketball teams are scheduled to open the season Thursday with a road game at Earle.
Hughes was scheduled to play Tuesday at Earle.
The eighth Forrest City Grocery/Rumble on the Ridge boys' basketball tournament will be played Nov. 25-27, at Mustang Arena.
PARAGOULD -- Rachel Allison scored 17 points to help the Jonesboro Lady Hurricane hold off Rivercrest 77-72 in senior girls' basketball Monday night at Greene County Tech's Coke Classic tournament.
Four other Jonesboro players were in double figures. Alyssa Edens scored 16, Jade Plunk 15, Talya Haskins 12 and Jordan Coleman 10.
Jonesboro (2-0) trailed 41-37 at halftime but outscored Rivercrest 20-12 in the third quarter to take a 57-53 lead.
Hannah Lark led Rivercrest (0-1) with 19 points, while Ashley Lewis scored 18 and Pauline Love 10.
Amanda Jeter scored 14 points to lead the Greene County Tech senior girls to their first win of the season, 70-57 over Blytheville at the Coke Classic.
Brooke Eason scored 13 points for the Lady Eagles, while Megan Hale added 12 and Lindsay Newberry 10. The Lady Eagles battled Blytheville early, holding a narrow 28-26 halftime lead, but pulled away in the third quarter to take a 48-34 lead.
Whitney Jones led Blytheville with a game-high 22 points. Serina Chew and Whiquita Taber both had 11 points.
Valerie Ford scored 12 points to lead the Annie Camp junior girls past Blytheville 38-17 Monday night at the Coke Classic. Shatel Lee added 9 points for the Lady Whirlwinds.
Annie Camp trailed 6-4 after the first quarter. The Lady Whirlwinds led 18-8 at halftime and 29-13 after three quarters.
Jalisa Sherman led Blytheville with 11 points.
Bay 54, Rector 40
BAY -- Amy Ballew scored 13 points as Bay defeated Rector 54-40 Monday night in senior girls' basketball.
Lee Davis contributed 10 points and 8 rebounds for Bay (5-1, 1-1 3AA-North). Bay led 17-4 after the first quarter, 27-14 at halftime and 40-25 after three quarters.
Elizabeth Cornelison scored 12 points to lead Rector (2-1, 1-1).
Manila 61, Brookland 30
MANILA -- Amanda Henson scored 21 points to lead Manila past Brookland 61-30 Monday night in senior girls' basketball.
Rachel Cheadle was also in double figures for Manila (5-3) with 12 points, and Katie Veach contributed 11 points.
Manila led 33-17 at halftime and 44-22 after three quarters.
Ashton Stevens led Brookland (0-6) with 13 points.
EPC 57, Riverside 53
LEPANTO -- Lauren Turner hit two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to push East Poinsett County past Riverside 57-53 Monday night in senior girls' basketball.
Turner finished with a game-high 19 points and four 3-pointers total, while Sade Madden added 16 points for EPC (1-0).
Riverside (4-4) led 17-15 after one quarter but EPC tied it 30-30 at halftime before taking a 45-40 lead through three quarters.
Marisa Johnson led Riverside with 16 points and Ashley Foster scored 13 points.