At PA, Mustangs looking to end another conference losing mark

Dating back to the 2018-19 prep basketball season, the Forrest City Mustangs overall conference record against the Pulaski Academy Bruins has not been as good as they would have liked.

Moving into the 4A-5 conference after a long tenure playing from within the 5A-East conference, Forrest City and Pulaski Academy have met six times in the conference schedule.

The Bruins own five of those victories, Forrest City's lone win over the Bruins came in the very first basketball conference meeting during the 2018-19 season, a 71-69 win at Mustang Arena in a game that was a vast contrast in styles.

In that game, the Mustangs played close to perfection, placing four players in double figures, led by 17 points from Ta’Darius Dale, 16 points from senior guard J.J. Whitby, including four threes, 14 points from Chad Mathis and 13 points from senior Randal Moore.

That perfection stopped at the foul line, where the Mustangs made just eight of their 17 free throws. The Mustangs missed five of six free throws in the final two minutes of the game,

Away from the foul line, the Mustangs survived a potential game-winning shot by the Bruins at the final buzzer after then senior guard Barry was fouled and sank the first of his two free throws for the 71-69 victory.

That win pushed the 2018-19 Mustang team to 9-5 overall and 5-1 in the conference.

Fast forward to tonight and the first matchup between the two teams this season.

The Mustangs, with an almost identical record now (10-6 and 50) as that 2018-19 team had, will make the trip west to take on Pulaski Academy on the Bruins home floor in search of ending a five-game conference losing streak against the Bruins as well as looking to stay unbeaten in the conference and padding their first-place position.

Tonight's road trip is the fourth of seven consecutive scheduled conference road trips for the Mustangs who have won their first three trips over Little Rock Mills, Stuttgart and Lonoke.

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The Forrest City Lady Mustangs got back on the winning track Wednesday with a conference win at Stuttgart to get to 2-3 in the conference standings.

The Lady Mustangs, led by 28 points from Kyla Morrow, took down Stuttgart 52-48, icing the game in the fourth quarter hitting 8 of 16 free throws and leaning on seven points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots from Charnelle Hoof.

"We needed that one," Forrest City head coach Caronica Williams said after the game.

Like that of the Forrest City boys, the Lady Mustangs overall conference mark over the past three seasons against Pulaski Academy mirrors the Mustangs.

The Lady Mustangs won their first ever conference game against Pulaski Academy during the 2018-29 season but dropped the next five conference matchups.

A win tonight at Pulaski Academy would get the Lady Mustangs even in the conference.

••••• Hosting White County Central in nonconference action Thursday, the Palestine-Wheatley junior girls came up short, losing to WCC 21-14 in a low scoring game for both teams.

WCC led 5-3 after the first frame before falling behind 10-7 at the half. A 14 to 4 second half pushed the WCC junior girls to the final margin of victory.

There were no scores available from the Palestine-Wheatley junior or senior boys' games on Thursday.

The P-W senior girls, with all but two girls on covid precautions, did not play and will not play tonight.

P-W will make the road trip to DeWitt tonight for a junior boys/senior boys only doubleheader.

••••• Jonesboro, returned to the MaxPreps national high school basketball rankings on Thursday, moving into the 50-team list at No. 47.

Jonesboro was No. 42 in the rankings before splitting four games in the prestigious Arby’s Classic at Bristol, Tenn., in late December.

After winning four games to open 5A-East conference play, the Hurricane moved back into the rankings to give the state two teams among the top 50, joining No. 9 North Little Rock.

The Hurricane (13-3, 4-0 5AEast) earned its 30th consecutive victory against in-state competition by defeating West Memphis 43-28 on Tuesday. Jonesboro will go for No. 31 tonight at Don Riggs Hurricane Gym against Searcy in a game set to start at approximately 6 p.m.