Rison and Charleston have not been tested this season. The Hughes Blue Devils and Palestine-Wheatley Patriots hope to change that Friday night as the Class AA Playoffs move into the third round.
T-H Sports Editor
Rison and Charleston have something in common this week as both teams suit up for Friday's Class AA quarterfinal playoff games.
Rison, ranked No. 1 in Class AA and Charleston, ranked second, will both be facing what could be the first real test of the season for each.
No. 3 ranked Palestine-Wheatley and No. 7 ranked Hughes will provide those tests.
Rison, 10-0 during the regular season and champions of the 8AA Conference, did not allow any of its 10 opponents to put up more than eight points. In fact, the Wildcats recorded five shutouts and held four teams to just six points. Fordyce, Rison's closest rival to the south, had the most luck against the Wildcats, scoring eight points.
Rison scored a total of 387 points in regular season for a per game average of 38.7.
Rison put 50 points or more three times, 40 points or more five times and 30 points or more seven times.
The 10 opponents averaged 3.2 points per game.
Palestine-Wheatley has given up more points than Rison, but the Patriots have put more points on the board than the Wildcats -- scoring 437 points -- which averages out to 10 more points per game than the Wildcats.
P-W has only two shutouts for the year and have given up more than 20 points three times.
There are those who believe that the winner of the Friday's P-W/Rison quarterfinal game will be the 2004 state champion.
There are six other AA teams, including Hughes, who may not agree with that assessment. Five of last year's eight quarterfinalists are in this year's mix.
Friday's winner will take on either Junction City or Perryville in the semifinals next week.
It is Palestine-Wheatley's second straight trip to the quarterfinals. Last year's playoff trip ended with a loss to Barton.
For Rison, las year's playoff ride ended with a 33-21 semifinal loss to Junction City, the eventual state champs.
Charleston, eliminated in last year's semifinals by Barton, have seven shutout victories for the regular season and allowed only two teams to score against them.
Charleston averaged 44.3 points per game while allowing only 16 pints per game.
Hughes, making their third straight quarterfinal appearance, have been eliminated by Junction City the past two years.
That won't be the case this time around. If Hughes can get past Charleston Friday, they will face the Harding Academy/Jessieville winner in next week's semifinal matchup.
Either team would be a rematch for Hughes.
Hughes lost to Harding in the regular season conference matchup between the two teams. The Blue Devils defeated Jessieville two years ago in the second round of the AA playoffs but lost to the Lions in this season's opening game.
Hughes has only two shutout wins this season and have scored a total of 307 points while giving up 143.
Like Rison, Charleston has not been tested this season and Hughes appears to be the team to serve up such a battle.
Cassandra Jackson scored 32 points and grabbed 18 rebounds Tuesday night to lead the Forrest City Junior Lady Mustangs past Marianna 50-21 in junior high basketball games played at Marianna.
The Forrest City girls are 2-0 for the year and will next play on Saturday, Nov. 27, at the Turrell Invitational Tournament.
Shequita Britt had seven points and 12 rebounds in the win while Kristen Rucker handed out eight assists.
"We played much better than we did in the opener against Earle," said Forrest City Coach Chris McManners. "We did a better job on the boards."."
Forrest City led 15-4 after one period and 26-14 at the half.
The Forrest City Junior Mustangs evened their season mark at 1-1 Tuesday with a 43-35 win over Mariana.
They did it without their leading scorer on the floor in the second half after an error in the official scorebook led to Jesse Mitchell fouling out with a little over a minute into the third period. He left with 16 points and five steals.
"When Jesse went out, Henry Henderson and the rest of the guys really picked up the slack," Houser said. "That was huge for us, to know that we have those guys who can overcome adversity like that."
The Junior Mustangs relied on their transition game against the much bigger Marianna team, according to Houser.
Henderson finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and seven steals while Ra'Tay Ursery added six points, three rebounds and three steals.
Teraye Lee hit two big free throws with just over two minutes left in the game to help push Forrest City lead back to a comfortable margin after Marianna closed the gap.
*At Brinkley, the Palestine-Wheatley Junior Lady Patriots got eight points from Jasmine Wynne and seven points from Brittney Wilson in a 39-21 loss to the Junior Lady Tigers.
It was the team's second loss to Brinkley this season. Brinkley led 17-14 at the half.
P-W drops to 1-3 for the year.
The P-W senior Lady Patriots rolled to 3-0 for the year, using 15 points from Kesha Stovall to take a 57-38 win over Brinkley.
Tonisha Wynne had 11 points, Cara Lansford and Whitney Smith nine, Fallon Parker seven and Bernice Sparkman six points.
The Lady Patriots were 10-of-12 from the foul line.
The Forrest City Masonic Lodge 198 will sponsor a Baseball Clinic on Saturday, Jan. 15, for boys and girls, ages eight through 14.
All proceeds from the clinic will benefit the Heart and Cancer Foundations.
The clinic will begin a 8:30 a.m. at Mustang Athletic Complex and instruction will be provided by area coaches, professional instructors and former and current baseball players.
Deadline to register for the clinic is Jan. 1, 2005.
For more information, call James Horman at 870-633-9996.
The first Annual Fireball "Winter Blast" Statewide Basketball Tournament will be Dec. 18-19 in Little Rock.
The Tournament is open to third trough seventh-grade boys and girls teams.
There will be 10 divisions and the tournament is open to elementary school teams, boys/girls club teams, recreation teams, and competitive traveling teams across Arkansas.
Seventh grade players cannot participate if they are playing with their school teams, all other school teams are welcome.
Teams will compete in pool/bracket play.
Awards will be given for first and second place teams in each division. The entry fee is $100 per team and the deadline to register is registration is Dec. 10.
For more information, please call (501) 612-3449 or e-mail arkansasfireballs@hotmail.com.
To download a registration packet or to view tournament rules,
go to www.arkansasfireballs.com (tournaments).