Lincoln Parish Battles

SIMSBORO — In a heavyweight bout between District 2-B rivals Simsboro and Choudrant, the scorecards read even for three quarters.

The Aggies were feeding Michael Jones and getting to the free-throw line, while the Tigers turned Choudrant over and used their athleticism to punch back when they needed. By halftime, Choudrant led 29-28 after a late three from Carson Carrico — holding on after Simsboro clawed back from a double-digit deficit in the first quarter.

Something had to give down the stretch.

And while it wasn’t an instant knockout, Simsboro won the district-opening battle in a decisive fashion with an 80-56 victory over Choudrant on Tuesday, outscoring the Aggies 52-27 in the second half to improve to 18-11 overall. With the loss, Choudrant dropped to 16-11 overall.

The difference in the ballgame came down to Choudrant’s turnovers and the ball pressure and trapping of Simsboro’s defense, forcing the Aggies to cough the ball up 30 times.

“They honestly did a great job of handling it for about three quarters. Coach Ryan does a great job over there, and that was a battle,” Simsboro head coach Adam Wodach said. “That score does not reflect how close that game was. I was sweating bullets. That was a dogfight, and that’s a credit to them. They came ready to play, and the wheels went off the handle there for about three minutes but really if you look outside of three to four minutes, that’s a five-point ballgame.

“The ball pressure was the difference. I expect that they’ll work on it when we play them in a week and a half.”

Choudrant came out of the gates ready with a tight zone defense, turning Simsboro into a half-court team and getting stops. The Aggies found early life from shooters as Tucker Batterton, Carrico, and Braden Soto all hit threes in the first quarter to help give Choudrant a 17-9 lead after the first. But the Aggies would start to turn the ball over at a high rate and trailed by four with two minutes left before halftime. Choudrant pulled back ahead 29-28 by halftime thanks to nine free throws in the second quarter.

After the early threes made by Choudrant in the first quarter, the Aggies hit two more the rest of the game and began to give away its lead and fall behind by multiple possessions as Simsboro turned the tables completely and employed overwhelming ball pressure, quick hands in passing lands, and outside shooting to grab a lead and never let go.

The Tigers outscored the Aggies 20-13 over the final five minutes of the third to pull ahead 51-44 entering the fourth, and that’s where the blowout ballooned.

Before the halfway point of the fourth, Simsboro exploded ahead 70- 47, leaving Choudrant head coach Ryan Smith no choice but to empty his bench and live to fight another day.

“Coach is doing a great job with what he has and the type of players that he has. He’s maximizing them to their absolute best, so credit him,” Smith said. “But with the pressure lasting 32 minutes, we’ve seen it in film where they don’t win the game until the last three or four minutes, and team like that is streaky, but you give up a couple turnovers or they hit a couple shots and they feed off it — especially here with the energy in the gym. That’s what happened tonight. Just had a few too many turnovers, few too many defensive lapses and it came back to bite us, and it snowballed. That’s what they’re great at.”

The fourth-quarter onslaught was brought on thanks to the efforts of Simsboro’s Ahmad Smith, an eighth grader, who outscored Choudrant himself 16-12 in the final eight minutes with timely steals into layups and two three pointers.

He put up 24 points in the second half and finished with 30 for the game to go with 8 steals.

“He’s very active defensively,” Wodach said of Smith. “I think he’s so deceptively long. You don’t realize how long his arms are and all of the sudden his hand is in the passing lane. He baits guys, it’s sometimes frustrating, but then he has the ball. For an eighth grader to have some of the poise he has is pretty impressive.”

To go with Smith’s big night, Jakaleb Modest scored 13 points and Itavus Brown scored 11 points.

Michael Jones led Choudrant with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Carrico scored 8 points.

For as tough a result as it was to open district for Choudrant, Smith said his group will respond and learn from their mistakes before the rematch against Simsboro on Feb. 2.

“We have Forest and Downsville and they’re both kind of in a dip and we feel confident with them of course,” Smith said. “So, coming back and getting ready for these guys again and getting to experience it here, I have confidence we can learn from it and see it on film.”

Choudrant will take on Downsville on Friday, while Simsboro hosts Forest on Friday.