By T. Scott Boatright
Simsboro came out clicking on all cylinders as the ninth-seeded Tigers raced away early to earn a 76-51 win over 24th seed Elizabeth in first-round action of the Division Nonselect School boys basketball playoffs Thursday night at the SHS gym.
Jakaleb Modest sent the Tigers roaring out of the gates, putting up the game’s first points with a 3-pointer only 20 seconds into the contest before making a steal and racing downcourt for a layup to put Simsboro up 5-0 at the 7:05 mark of the opening stanza.
An old-school three-point play by Itavus Brown on a layup and free throw pushed the SHS lead to 8-2 with 6:31 left in the first quarter before Modest popped his second trey of the contest to push the Tigers advantage to 11-5 at the 3:18 mark of the period.
Another steal and layup by Modest helped the Tigers double up on the Bulldogs at 16-8 with 2:20 left in the first quarter, which was closed out with Justin Prudhome hitting his second 3-pointer to push Simsboro’s lead to 21-12 at the end of the period.
Simsboro kicked into “turbocharge mode” in the second quarter, with the Tigers forcing turnover after turnover to push their lead to 20 points at 34-14 on a Jalen Outley free throw and starting a running clock with a 35-point lead at 53-18 on another Modest 3-pointer with 2:14 left in the first half.
Elizabeth scored the final seven points of the second quarter to cut Simsboro’s lead to 53-25 at halftime.
“Coming out, we just knew that we had to execute,” Modest said. “We just had to wear them out and not let them come back in the game.”
Brown led the Tigers on the night with 24 points, including five 3-points, while Modest totaled 17 points with three treys of his own.
“If we can play like we did in the first half, nobody can really mess with us,” Brown said. “We just have to keep the intensity up and finish the game like we started.”
Simsboro’s fast start even surprised head coach Adam Wodach to some degree.
“You prepare and work hard, but you never really know how you’re going to come out,” Wodach said. “But holy smokes, we were playing fast tonight. That was a lot of fun. I think we were incredibly unselfish.
“I’ll look at the stats tomorrow (after reviewing video), but I would love to know how many assists we had. It had to be double-digit assists as a team. I’ll bet five of our first-half 3-pointers were off of assists.
Unselfish basketball, we’re hitting layups and playing fast — that’s exactly what it’s about.”
And Thursday night was all about fun for the Tigers and their home crowd/
“They made my job easy tonight,” Wodach said. “They just went out there and played. I think we called (only) four plays tonight.”
Elizabeth managed to outscore the Tigers 26-23 in the second half, but with a running clock Simsboro spent the final two quarters moving the basketball and not forcing anything, instead looking for open shots and milking the final 16 minutes off the clock in a hurry.
“We scored 53 points in the first 15 minutes,” Wodach said. “We only scored 25 in the second half, but we were milking the clock.”
Ahmad Smith added 11 points for the Tigers while Justin Prudhome added 10, including a pair of 3-pointers, while Outley chipped in with nine points.
Next up for the Tigers (23-13) will be a second-round contest on Tuesday against the winner of tonight’s game between eighth-seeded Singer and 25th seed Monterey.
Modest realizes that things might not be as easy in that one, especially if Singer wins tonight’s home game.
“We just have to come out and play like we did today and play all four quarters, match energy with the other team and try to play better than they do.” Modest said. “It’ll be tough if we have to go against another team’s home crowd. We just have to do like this — like we did tonight.”
