Lincoln Prep
By T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — Here come the Panthers, knocking on that door again.
The Lincoln Preparatory School boys basketball team has spent the past three seasons knocking on the door of a state championship, reaching at the semifinals if not finals in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association playoffs.
On Friday inside the LPS gym, the second-seeded Panthers earned a fourth-straight to Marsh Madness with a 67-37 win over seventh-seeded JS Clark Academy to make it six straight years Lincoln Prep will be heading to Lake Charles and Division IV Select School Final Four.
Lincoln Prep dominated from start to finish, leading 19-10 at the end of the opening stanza and 40-21 at the half.
Panthers coach Antonio Hudson credited that to being because his team stuck to the gameplan they had going into the contest.
“That was a good team we just beat and that coach is going to be a really good coach,” Hudson said. “He’s young. He just started. But he’s going to be really good.
“We’re just blessed that we stayed with the game plan and got their top player (LaDamien George, who finished with eight points) into foul trouble, because he really can play. I think it was doing and holding him down in scoring that was what made the difference in the game tonight.”
But that doesn’t mean Hudson was pleased with everything he saw from his Panthers.
“The thing is, we were losing the boards in the first half,” Hudson said. “We talked about that at halftime and focused on that. But our guys played hard. They stuck to the gameplan and they played their tails off.”
Unsurprisingly, Trey Spann led the Panthers in scoring as he so often does, finishing with 21 points on the night.
“He’s been playing since he was in the eighth grade and came up with great players, too, so he’s been around championship-level players all of his life,” Hudson said. “But the main thing with Trey is that he puts in the work, and it shows.
“That’s exactly what happened tonight. In the first quarter they kind of focused on him and he didn’t get a shot off. But as soon as they left him in single-coverage, he knocked that shot down and went on from there.”
Devin Burton added 20 points for the Panthers while also chalking up four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot while Zion Hicks double-doubled, totalling 10 points and 11 boards along with two assists and two steals.
Hudson credited his bench players for playing a vital role against JS Clark.
Zeterrious (Owens) came in and played well, Daylon Edwards came in and played well,” Hudson said. “And that’s what I expect. I don’t care which player does it, as long as someone is doing it. And that’s what a deep team is all about.”
Hudson said that while he didn’t exactly predict another Marsh Madness trip for his Panthers before the season began, he knew that potential was there.
“I was at a friends’ house playing dominoes last summer, and I told him that this team could be really special,” Hudson said. “Not just because of one player, but because we’re deep. We’re playing without a starter right now and we just keep moving on. We’re still playing well.
“On any given night, we don’t know what kind of stats our players will give you because so many of them can play big in all roles and categories on any given night. And that’s a good thing, to be that deep. So we can afford to get into foul trouble and switch lineups around.”
So now for a fourth straight year, the Panthers prepare for Marsh Madness.
Hudson hopes past lessons will pay off for his team this time around.
“Here’s the thing — we’re young overall, but a lot of these guys have been down there (to Marsh Madness) on multiple occasions. They know what it feels like going down there and coming back empty handed.
“So that’s been something we’ve been focusing on — unfinished business. They want a championship just as much as I do. This senior class had been (to Marsh Madness) every year. They’ve played in Lake Charles every year. And that means it’s up to them. It doesn’t matter how bad I want it, want it for me or for them. It’s about how much they want it, and now they just have to go get over that hump.”
Lincoln Prep (25-7) will next take on third-seeded Southern Lab in Division IV Select School semifinals action next week at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
SIMSBORO SCHOOL
SIMSBORO — Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi would have been proud of the Simsboro High School boys basketball team Friday night.
The coach the Super Bowl Trophy is named for (after he coached the Green Bay Packers to win the first two of those championship contests) is famous for saying, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”
Well, the fourth-seeded Simsboro Tigers got punched in the mouth early on in their Class B quarterfinals boys basketball playoff game before getting up off the floor and turning the tables on fifth-seeded Hicks to punch their tickets to Marsh Madness next week in Lake Charles as they roared to a 77-63 win over the Pirates inside the SHS gym.
Hicks opened the game on an 11-3 run before the Tigers stumbled back onto their feet to tie the contest at 15-15 on a Jakleb Modest 3-pointer at the 1:25 mark of the opening stanza.
Modest drew the opportunity to try an “and 1” free-throw attempt that failed to fall through the nets as Hicks held a 17-15 advantage heading into the second quarter.
But the Tigers finally regained the lead at 25-23 on an Ahmad Smith 3-pointer with 4:51 left in the first half before going on a 10-0 run to close out the second quarter to take a 40-29 advantage into the locker room at intermission.
“We played as a team tonight, a special team that played really well together,” Wodach said. “You saw winning basketball from every player that was on the court tonight.
“The thing is, we would have lost that game earlier in the year. But we’ve learned how to finish.”
Wodach said that learned confidence is how his team overcame its early knockdown to battle back for the convincing win.
“It’s a tribute to our growth and our willingness to stay together,” Woodach said. “I don’t think there was ever a panic. I don’t think we ever panicked. I think we had moments where we let our feet off the gas, but I don’t think we ever panicked.”
Simsboro led from start to finish in the second half. But that didn’t mean the Pirates gave up their fight.
Trailing 59-47 heading into the fourth quarter, Hicks pulled within five points of the Tigers at 59-54 with 5:12 left on the clock on a Micah Merchant 3-point.
But that’s as close as the Pirates as the Tigers earned their first Marsh Madness berth for the first time since 2022.
Modest led the Tigers with what Wodach termed “a quiet” 31 points while Smith added 23.
But it was Simsboro’s other Smith — the senior known as “Man-Man,” Trumarion Smith — that guided this team through tough conditions early on and kept their offense on track, finishing with 18 points on the night.
“He has the heart of a champion and has the will to just refuse to lose, and you saw that tonight,” Wodach said of Trumarion Smith. “Having a coach on the floor is like, I don’t have to call anything. Just get the ball in his hands and something good is going to happen.
“In a game like this, with this incredible atmosphere, you can’t call anything because they’re not going to hear you above the crowd. It was an incredible environment. The Simsboro fans were just spectacular. But my players didn’t need to be able to hear me because Trumarion is such a special kid and player.”
Simsboro won its 2022 state title in then Coach Josh Brown’s final season with the Tigers.
In 2023 the Tigers fell in the second round of the playoffs under a new coach, who resigned at the end of the season, opening the door for the “Adam Wodach Era” for Simsboro boys basketball.
But while being proud of what his team has accomplished since he’s been their head coach, making it to the quarterfinals last year before falling to eventual Division V Nonselect School champion Zwolle, he’s not accepting credit for the quick turnaround in returning the Tigers to one of the top teams in Louisiana.
“It’s not about me, man,” Wodach said. “It’s about these kids and what this program stands for. I’m just lucky to be a part of it. My staff and I and my assistants and our principal and teachers can put these kids in a position to succeed, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s that player’s win games.”
Next up for Simsboro will be a semifinals game against top-seeded Lacassine (which defeated nine-seeded Stanley 67-25 Friday night) next week at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
