Mustangs open Rumble with 59-53 win over Rams

Forrest City used their speed and long range shooting to get past former 5A-East Conference foe Paragould 59-53 in Thursday's first round Rumble on the Ridge game played at Dwight Lofton Mustang Arena.

Kesean Washington led the Mustangs (3-0) with 16 points, seven of those points in the fourth quarter for Forrest City. Melvin Shaw had 12 points and Mykeon White had eight of his 10 points during a key third quarter for the Mustangs.

The Mustangs will play one of two semifinal games today. The tournament trophy round games will begin Saturday at noon.

Paragould led 14-11 after the opening frame before falling into a 28-28 tie at the half.

The Mustangs led 45-43 after three quarters befor outscoring the Rams 14 to 10 in the final frame to get the win.

Paragould, coming off a 1-18 season a year ago, got 28 points from 6'7" senior guard Isaiah Jackson. No other Rams player scored more than eight points.

The Rams were 4 of 4 from the foul line while Forrest City dropped in 4 of their seven free throw chances.

Second round tournament games will be played Friday beginning at 3:30 p.m.

••••• Blytheville started strong and finished the same way taking a convincing 44-15 win over defending Class AA champion Marianna Lee in a first round Rumble on the Ridge game Thursday.

Camron Jones led Blytheville with 15 points while Marianna got six points from Edward Winfrey.

Blytheville led 8-2 after the first frame and 19-3 at the half. Marianna, missing several key players to injuries, finally reached double figures with 11 points with five minutes left in the game.

••••• Marion, making its first ever appearance in the Rumble on the Ridge, used a strong fourth quarter to get past first time Rumble participant, Ridgeway,

Tenn. 64-23 in first round games played Thursday.

Marion, still alive in the Class 6A football playoffs, will travel to El Dorado tonight, led Ridgeway 13-5 after one quarter, 36-11 at the half and 55-20 after three quarters.

Marion got 22 points from Jayden Forest and 13 points from Ryan Forest.

••••• Arlington, Tenn. held Little Rock Hall to single digit scoring in the first and third quarters on the way to securing a 56-37 win over The Warriors.

Hall was making its sixth tournament appearance while Arlington was in the Rumble for a second time.

Arlington led 16-9 after one frame and 29-27 at the half and then held Hall to just 10 second half points while putting up 27 points to secure the win.

Arlington got 12 points each from Karl Burroughs and V.J. Simmons.

Heden Singleton led Hall with 15 points while Xavier Simpson added nine points.