By T. Scott Boatright
The Simsboro High School Lady Tigers shook off a sluggish start at home Friday night to roar from behind and earn a 42-34 District 1-B win over Castor inside the SHS gym.
Finding themselves trailing 14-9 at the end of the opening stanza, Simsboro battled back to take a 27-17 lead at halftime after senior Mahogany Mosley came off the bench and nailed a 3-pointer 14 seconds before intermission to give her team that 10-point lead heading into the locker room.
“That’s what a senior does,” SHS coach Matt Herring said. “She was waiting for her time, and when she got her shot she didn’t miss. She’s always the first one at practice and never misses. I was proud of her for getting that good shot tonight.”
After Simsboro built as much as a 14-point lead after halftime, Castor managed to cut the SHS advantage to six points in the final minute of play. Prater said that overall, it was the kind of game he wanted to see from his Lady Tigers.”
“It was great to be a part of a game with both teams playing really hard like that,” Herring said. “I knew coming into this game that Castor was very similar to us. They play man-to-man and like to get after their opponents.
“I wanted to see if we would step up tonight. We’d won 10 games and they’d won about 10 games. At first they kind of punched us in the mouth and built a 10-point lead on us. But my girls didn’t quit. They just kept on fighting back and we dug out of that hole in the second quarter.”
Curniya McCallister led the Lady Tigers with 10 points on the night while Mallory Mitchell added nine and Jahkeria Abney chipped in with seven.
“She’s been a sparkplug for us this season,” Herring said. “Some nights she hits the 3s, but tonight it was that quick first step she used to get past them tonight and get to the basket, getting shots, getting free throws.
“Curniya has led us in scoring the past couple of weeks. She just kind of kind of stepped up out of nowhere.”
Bree Williams added four points for Simsboro, but it was her play in the paint and on the boards that Prater said played a key role in the SHS win.
“She’s playing with a hurt hand on her scoring arm right now, but I told her if we were going to win this game, we had to control the glass,” Herring said. “And she took that as a mission and just went after it and fought for rebounds trying to keep Castor’s big girl away from the basketball. I was really proud of her tonight.”
Simsboro, now 11-10 overall and 2-1 in district play, will host Quitman in a 1-B showdown next Friday.
