By T. Scott Boatright
SIMSBORO — All nine Lady Tigers contributed to the scoring stat Tuesday as Simsboro High School’s High School’s girls basketball team started strong and led from start to finish in a 56-32 District 1-B home win over Doyline inside the SHS gym.
The Lady Tigers led 15-7 by the end of the opening stanza and led 24-12 with a little over a minute left in the first half, but the Lady Panthers tightened things up in the two minutes of the second quarter before a Zahkiyah Jiles’ 3-pointer with less than a second on the cluck stretched the SHS back out to seven points at 26-19 the half.
Simsboro pushed its lead back out to double digits in the first three minutes of the first half and never let the Lady Panthers closer than 10 points behind the rest of the way, outscoring Doyline 18-9 in the final quarter to earn the 24-point win.
“It was just a great team effort tonight with everybody in there scoring and playing hard on defense,” said Lady Tigers coach Matt Herring. “It was just a great night for the whole team.”
With his team getting healthier while the Lady Panthers were playing shorthanded, Herring said he came into the game hoping it would go just the way it did, rotating players at a high frequency to make that happen.
“We wanted to try and get after them because we knew they couldn’t sub much,” Herring said of the Lady Panthers. “So we were deliberate in keeping fresh legs in there and just slowly wore them out. And that’s what happened tonight.”
“Having the full team out there as we’re getting healthier was a big plus,” Herring said. “We struggled with injuries early and we’re kind of past that now. With the playoffs approaching, it’s a good time to be getting healthy.”
Curniya McCallister led the Lady Tigers with 12 points while Mitchell added 10, Mahogany Mosley chipped in with seven and Dakota Powell with six.
Also scoring for Simsboro were Jahkeria Abney with five points, Jiles and Tamia Graham with four each, and Jerenity Loyd and Bree Williams with two each.
Simsboro moved to 13-13 and 4-3 in District 1-B with the win and will next play host to North Caddo on Friday.
