FORREST CITY -- Both teams that played for the 21st Rumble on the Ridge title Saturday had been there before.
It's been five years since Southwind, Tenn., last played in the Rumble on the Ridge tournament in Forrest City. The Jaguars won titles in 2011 and 2012, after finishing as runners-up in the 2010 tournament.
Southwind returned its fast-paced style Saturday to win its third Rumble title by racing past the host Forrest City Mustangs 79-57.
Forrest City was making its fourth appearance in the tournament's championship game, having played in the 2000 title game, winning the title in 2014 and losing to El Dorado in the 2015 championship game.
Mark Freeman scored 30 points for Southwind to garner MVP honors. He had 19 in Friday's semifinal victory over Little Rock Hall and 15 in the first round victory over McComb, Miss.
"We are going to enjoy this one," Southwind Coach Paul Edwards said. "Make no mistake, we came back to the Rumble to win it and we did that."
Early turnovers and missed free throws put the Mustangs (2-2) in an early hole.
"We gave up too many 50-50 shots," Forrest City Coach Dwight Lofton said. "Southwind executed their game plan well. I saw some Saturday legs on the floor on our side of the game. That and the turnovers were the difference."
Forrest City defeated Sidney-Lanier and El Dorado to get to the title game.
"Overall, I thought there were more positives for us in the three games than negatives," Lofton added. "We grew up this weekend as a team, and the three games exposed some areas that we definitely to work on as we get ready for our conference openers."
The Mustangs fell behind 25-14 to start the second quarter and made up some ground to get within 38-30 at halftime.
Southwind found another gear in the second half, extending its lead to 56-40 before settling for a 15-point lead to start the fourth quarter.
Southwind pushed its lead to 18 points with just over five minutes left.
Junior Randal Moore led the Mustangs with 16 points, while Barry Wilburn added 15 points.
Forrest City connected on just 17 of its 49 field-goal attempts, while Southwind hit 38 of its 63 shots.
The Mustangs lost the battle of the boards to Southwind, getting outrebounded 43-34.
The Mustangs suffered 20 turnovers while the Jaguars lost 12.
LITTLE ROCK HALL 77, EL DORADO 71
Little Rock Hall (4-1) got 18 points from Gregory Johnson and 19 from Jonathan Coleman to slide past two-time defending champion El Dorado in the third-place game.
Hall jumped to a nine-point lead over the Wildcats in the first quarter and led 41-35 at the half.
The Warriors outscored El Dorado 21-13 in the third quarter to begin the final quarter up 62-48.
Montavious Dismuke drained back-to-back three-pointers to open the fourth quarter as Hall extended its lead to 72-58 with just over three minutes left in the game.
The two teams combined to hit 16 three-pointers.
El Dorado got 28 points from Joderrio Ramey in the loss.
Hall was making its fourth trip to the Rumble. The Warriors finished seventh in 2011 with Bobby Portis and Quan Jones and returned in 2012 to finish third.
The two Class 6A schools will meet again in December at the Coca-Cola Classic.
Hall placed three players on the All-Tournament teams with Coleman named to the first team and Jared Smith and Johnson locking up two spots on the second team.
El Dorado placed Brendan Johnson on the first team, and Ramey on the second team.
Sports on 11/26/2017