By T. Scott Boatright
The Simsboro Tigers got the opportunity they wanted, trying to tie in the final 10 seconds of the game.
But the ball just couldn’t find the net.
Delta Charter hit the first of two free throws with 1.9 seconds left and then added a bucket at the buzzer after rebounding the missed second charity shot show to escape with a 66-61 win over the Tigers in the final game of the Simsboro Tournament held Saturday.
“We battled,” Wodach said. “We’ve been in those moments a lot this year where we’re down eight in the last six minutes and then find a way to scrap back. Credit us for tying. It was just a great basketball game. We battled back and forth until the end.”
Trailing 63-61 with possession of the ball, Simsboro coach Adam Wodach called a time out with 11.5 seconds remaining to set up a chance to tie or win for his Tigers.
The Tigers had been behind by nine points at 49-38 to start the fourth quarter but slowly kept chipping away at the Delta Charter lead, with Justin Terrell’s 3-pointer with 4:01 left on the clock pulling the Tigers within two at 52-50.
Delta Charter then scored four answered points to build a 56-50 advantage, but the Tigers weren’t done yet.
Terrell had hit nothing but net on another 3-pointer 2:33 left on the clock to keep Simsboro within striking distance at 56-53, but Delta Charter’s Marvin Dolly nailed a 3-pointer of his own to push the Gators’ lead back to six at 59-53.
Ahmad Smith’s running jumper at the 1:58 mark of the final stanza cut the Gators’ lead to 59-55, but Delta Charter’s Jonas Carroll made a layup with 1:14 on the clock to to push the lead back to six points at 61-55 before the Tigers’ made a pair of consecutive baskets — a short jumper by Terrell and a pull-up jumper right in front of the basket to pull within two points at 61-59 with 50 seconds remaining.
After Delta Charter’s Jonas Carroll hit a jumper with 15 seconds remaining, Wodach had his team bring the ball across the midcourt line before calling that final timeout.
Smith ran the baseline and tried a jumper off the inbounds pass, and got the rebound and put up another shot, but the Gators’ got the rebound after that second miss.
“We ran it perfectly,” Wodach said. “We had Justin Terral coming off a double stagger and we had Ahmad. I thought they might be worried about Justin hitting another 3, so the plan was if they switch it and Ahmad’s open, take the shot.
“That happened and I thought he had a great look. We ended up getting the ball back, too. It just didn’t happen tonight.”
Wodach praised Terrell’s clutch play down the stretch.
“Justin’s matured a lot,” Wodach said. “I’m really proud of him. “Those were big time shots. He was open, too, on the out-of-bounds set, but it starts to get tough because when he starts to get hot, the defenses start working to take him away. It makes it harder for him to get open.
“Credit to him too for attitude. I asked him if he was open on that baseball drive by Ahmad and he said, ‘Yeah, but Ahmad took a great look.’ So, that’s part of it sometimes. That’s a great teammate, celebrating your teammate who went through a tough shot and missed. He was open and it just happened. Sports are like that. But credit to JT and credit to Ahmad for taking that shot.”
Mike Smith led Simsboro with 20 points while Ahmad Smith added 16, Terrell chipped in with 13 and Amaren Woodward totaled 9.
Simsboro fell to 8-11 on the season with the loss.
“We’ve played a tough schedule,” Wodach said. “We’ve played really good teams and have only been beaten badly one time — at Natchitoches Central. Other than that, every game we’ve played has been a battle.
“Having three games this week coming back from Christmas break, I think we were a little worn down. That’s not to make an excuse. We have to find ways to push through and overcome adversity, but you have to credit Delta Charter, too, and especially Jaevon Davis (who led all scorers with 21 points). He caused us a lot of problems.”
Next up for the Tigers will be a game at Ouachita Christian on Tuesday.
