By T. Scott Boatright
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.
