By Robert Wilson
Simpson Academy girls basketball coach Linda Dear is two wins away from her fifth state championship of her outstanding, 40-year head coaching career, the last 23 at Simpson.
Dear led her Lady Cougars one step closer to a state title with impressive back to back wins over MAIS Class 4A and Overall Tournament favorite Madison-Ridgeland Thursday and then Saturday with a 43-36 victory over defending MAIS Overall champion Parklane Academy for the MAIS South Class 4A state title at Copiah Academy.
Simpson – ranked No. 16 in Mississippi and No. 2 in MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – improved to 26-5. Simpson will play Pillow Academy, a 85-56 loser to East Rankin Academy Saturday afternoon in the North Class 4A state title game, Wednesday in the Division I semifinals at Jackson Prep.
Parklane – ranked No. 27 in Mississippi and No. 5 in the MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – dropped to 22-7. Parklane will play East Rankin Wednesday in the other Division I semifinal.
The two semifinal winners will play for the championship and the two semifinal losers will play for the consolation title. All four teams advance to the Overall.
Simpson and Parklane had split its two regular season meetings with Simpson winning 51-40 Jan. 9 at Parklane and Parklane winning 69-53 Jan. 27 at Simpson.
Both teams were coming off emotional wins in Thursday’ ssemifinals. Simpson more so with its incredible, 24-point comeback victory over MRA, a team that it had lost twice in the regular season. Senior guard Jayda Smith completed the comeback with a 5-foot jumper in the lane with 11 seconds to play.
Parklane had a big fourth quarter, led by senior guard and East Texas Baptist signee Zoe Alford, to pull away from Jackson Prep, which had defeated Parklane earlier in the year in a rematch of last year’s Overall semifinals.
Saturday’s game was tight most of the way with Parklane ahead 11-9 after one quarter, tied at 20-20 at halftime and Parklane ahead 29-26 after three quarters.
But Simpson went on a 5-0 to start the fourth quarter for a 31-29 lead. Then after Parklane sophomore guard-forward Carlyle Carruth scored, Simpson got the lead to stay with a 6-0 run on back to back shots by senior forward Brooke Blackledge and then eighth-grader Gracie Pinkerton with a shot for a 37-31 lead with 3 minutes, 56 seconds to play.
Carruth made a lane jumper and Alford made one free throw to cut the Simpson 39-36, but Parklane missed a potential game-tying 3-point attempt at the 53-second mark and Simpson’s Smith made four of four shots from the free throw line to clinch the victory.
Smith – a Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College softball signee – finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists, Blackledge had 8 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists and freshman Elle McNulty – daughter of Simpson assistant girls coach and head boys coach Josh McNulty – had 5 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists.
The 5-foot-11 Carruth – the niece of former Parklane, Alabama and NFL running back Paul Ott Carruth – finished with a game-high 22 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 assist. Alford had eight points.
Dear has 673 career wins to go along with four state championships, all at Simpson, in her 40 career seasons. 23 seasons at Simpson. Her last state title was in 2019. With the win Saturday, she is two more wins until another one.
“We did not shoot the ball well in the first half and to make matters worse Elle picked up her third foul in the second quarter and had to come to the bench,” Dear said. “That really put pressure on the other girls to score. In the second half, Brooke really did a great job on (Parklane senior forward and Southern Miss softball signee Anna) Sawyer and Gracie came in and had a good night on defense. This team is so unselfish. (Senior guard) Maggie (Shivers) passed up a good shot several times and got the ball to Jayda who had a better shot. Teamwork as its finest. Again, our bench was awesome and so was our crowd. We can’t thank our fans enough for their support. We wouldn’t be where we are without my assistant coaches Chauncer Funchess and Josh McNulty. I wouldn’t coach without them.”
“The game was just like the MRA game, another tough game,” Smith said. “The last time we played Parklane, we didn’t play up to Simpson basketball’s standards. We knew that today, for the South State championship, we needed to be more aggressive on defense and have more energy. We made some big plays in the fourth quarter down the stretch, which allowed us to come away with another win. Now, we have to take this same energy into the state tournament next week.”
“Our team came to win, and we did,” Shivers said. “We have faced ups and downs, challenges and victories, yet no matter what, we have stayed together as one team. We supported each other, and kept fighting side by side. I am so proud of this team for never giving up, for working together through every moment, and for showing true heart and grit. This team is more than just girls and coaches. It is family, and we will continue to fight together as one until the very end.”
“I was pleased with our girls’ effort against a very physical and well coached Simpson team,” said Parklane coach Vicki Rutland, who played basketball at Forest Hill High and played softball and was a cheerleader at Delta State and has coached basketball, softball and has been an athletic director at Lumberton, West Marion, Northeast Jones, and Lawrence County before coming to Parklane five years ago. “However, we have got to do a better job on the boards and make free throws if we are going to successfully complete in the 4A Division I state tournament and at Overall. We can always rely on our defense to keep us in the game. But our shots didn’t fall like we needed them to down the stretch today and as a result, we came up short. I thought Carlyle had a great game, especially considering she sustained an ankle injury at the end of the Prep game. Zoe showed tremendous leadership throughout the game, recognizing that Carlyle was open on the mismatch while she was being heavily guarded and encouraging the team to feed Carlyle. The ball at the post. That’s what I love about this group of girls. They are unselfish and truly love each other, wanting what’s best for the team. Although we were disappointed with the lose today, we realize that we’ve got a lot of basketball ahead of us the next few weeks and we plan to make the best of it.”
“I think the team played hard and I’m proud of our effort,” said Carlyle, who has a Division I offer from Southern Miss and interest from several other Division I schools. “Our shots weren’t falling but we competed at a high level and now we are focusing on what’s ahead game by game. We are trusting in the plan God has for us.”
