The 4A-3 top-seeded Blytheville Chickasaws punched their ticket to the Class 4A State Tournament on Wednesday night, cruising past Forrest City, 74-56, in the opening round of the 4A East Region Tournament at Highland High School in Hardy.
Behind 10 first quarter points from Tedrick Washington, the Chicks led 19-15 going into the second quarter. They were ahead 37-32 at halftime. Blytheville outscored Forrest City 16-15 in the third quarter.
Washington had a game-high 20 points to lead five Chickasaws in double figures on the night. Deveon Smith chipped in 15 points, Winston Peace 14, Jaquon Fowler 13 and Johnny Anderson 11 in the win.
"We had five guys in double figures, which was huge," Blytheville head coach McKenzie Pierce said. "Our goal every game is to have four guys in double figures; we feel like we're at our best when we're moving the ball and taking good shots and we did that tonight. We had a big 4th quarter but the biggest difference was we didn't turn it over as much and we kept Forrest City off the glass. Shoutout to Forrest City though, we had several opportunities to knock them out early and they kept crawling their way back in it. I wouldn't expect anything else from a team coached by (Dwight) Lofton. Defensively, it wasn’t our best game but luckily our shots were falling tonight."
Blytheville will play the winner of Little Rock McClellan-Valley View at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the 4A East Region semifinals.