By T. Scott Boatright
It took fighting off a late surge by Choudrant, but the Simsboro Lady Tigers took firm control in District 2-B Friday with a 56-45 win at the SHS Gym.
Simsboro remains undefeated in district play at 4-0 while Choudrant is now 2-2 in 2-B action.
Both teams got off to a sluggish start, with Simsboro scoring the first six points on a pair of buckets by Ikeia Brown and an inside shot by Amani Dean, but the Lady Aggies battled back with a 5-2 run to cut Simsboro’s lead to 8-5 at the end of the opening stanza.
Simsboro pushed its lead to as many as 14 points on a 3-pointer by Kayla Mitchell with 48 seconds left before intermission, but Choudrant’s Mattie Johnson’s basket with 34 seconds left on the clock cut the Lady Tigers’ advantage to 27-15 at halftime.
The third quarter went much like the second, with Simsboro building as much as an 18–point advantage at 36-18 on a Dean layup midway through the stanza before the Lady Aggies began battling back, cutting the Lady Tiger’s to 40-30 on a Johnson layup just before the final horn sounded to send the contest into the fourth quarter.
Choudrant capitalized on a 6-0 run to start the final stanza with a inside basket by Sadie Jones, a pair of Johnson free throws and a layup from Heather Murphy to cut Simsboro’s lead to 40-36 with 5:17 remaining, but the Lady Tigers followed with a 7-2 run a pair of Brown free throws pushing their lead back to nine points with 3:29 left on the clock.
“I had to tell the girls to calm down,” said SHS coach Matt Herring. “We let our emotions get to us tonight with senior night and everything going on. We didn’t play our best tonight. We didn’t hit our shots. We missed 19 free throws.
“We didn’t play our style of basketball. We just got totally out of whack. I just had to get them to call down.”
The Lady Aggies got as close as seven points back on an inside basket by Johnson to cut Simsboro’s lead to 47-40 with 3:14 remaining, but could get no closer as the Lady Tigers closed out the quarter with a 9-5 run.
“It’s a sigh of relief,” Herring said. “We knew Choudrant would come in here and give us a real test. To get total control of the district is a big thing as we wrap up the regular season. It’s huge.
“But I just don’t want to only win district. I want to be playing our best ball heading into the playoffs. We need to be playing our best and not just win because we’re a better team. I want to see us playing our best at every aspect of the game as we move into the playoffs.”
Brown topped all scorers with 33 points while Mallory Mitchell added nine points for the Lady Tigers.
Choudrant coach Geoffrey Underwood was pleased with his team’s play despite the loss.
“We’re just going to battle and fight to the end and win as many ballgames as we can,” Underwood said. “That’s all we can do. We played so hard … I like what I saw. We’ve got young players who are stepping up, working hard and learning. We’ve got seniors who are leaving behind a legacy of hard work and doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s been fun to watch and be part of.
“What we did tonight is we competed, and that’s what we stress. If we do that, we learn to do a lot of good things on the basketball court, and in real life, too.”
Johnson led Choudrant with 20 points while Murphy added 14 for the Lady Aggies.
“She’s turned from a role player to our leader,” Underwood said about Johnson. “She’s our scoring leader, our leader in rebounds and our leader in assists. She just does it all — just non-stop and full speed all the time.”
Choudrant, 5-25 overall, will next play host to Downsville (5-17 overall, 1-3 in 2-B) on Tuesday while Simsboro will play at Forest (11-7, 1-2) on the same day.
