By Robert Wilson
It’s not often teams have come into tiny Madden in Leake County and beat the Leake girls basketball team since the school started in the 1970s.
Consider that Doyle Wolverton won a Mississippi record 1,249 girls basketball games and 15 state championships from 1975-2013 and Amanda Hatch has continued the winning tradition with an amazing winning percentage, even putting together a five-year, 70-game home winning streak, which ended last season.
So when Simpson Academy came into Leake and won for the second consecutive year Friday night, it was a major accomplishment.
And give Ava Dunn a lot of the credit for the historic win.
The 5-foot-7 junior guard scored a game-high 21 points, including 13 in the first quarter, to lead Simpson to a 51-42 MAIS Class 5A, District 2 victory over Leake before a full house at Leake’s Joe F. Shepard Gym.
Simpson improved to 15-8 overall and 5-0 in district play and has won 13 of its last 15 games. Leake – which was the 5A state runner-up and Overall Tournament semifinalist last season – dropped to 20-4 overall and 3-2 in district play and broke a seven-game winning streak. It was Leake’s second loss at home this season – Pillow won at Leake Nov. 14 – and the first time since the 2016-2017 season Leake had lost two home games in a season.
The win was especially satisfying to Simpson coach Linda Dear. She had beaten Leake four consecutive times last season but lost to Leake 46-39 in the MAIS Class 5A semifinals at Pillow.
In addition, Simpson had struggled for the past two decades against Leake. Simpson had lost 38 of its last 40 games against Leake dating back to the 2006-2007 season before going on its winning streak against Leake last season. Simpson defeated Leake in the first meeting at Simpson last season and the first win over Leake since the 2019-2020 season when Simpson eliminated Leake in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament. Simpson defeated Leake twice that year, the only time Simpson has won in the series since the 2006-2007 season.
Simpson ended Leake’s 70-game home winning streak Jan. 24 last season with a 49-45 victory, the first time Leake had lost at home in five seasons and the first time Dear had defeated Leake at home in her 20 seasons as Simpson’s coach.
“It’s always great to beat Leake,” said Dear, who has won 621 games and four state titles – all at Simpson – in 38 seasons, 21 years at Simpson, 13 at Brandon High, three at Union Academy and one at Rankin Academy. “I know that coaches talk about team victories all the time, but this truly was a team victory. Everybody who played contributed. We started real slow this year and back in November we were 2-6 and had lost five in a row, but my girls kept working hard and turned things around. We were on a roll and then we lost (sophomore starter) Elie Stewart last week with a fractured leg. Maggie Shivers replaced her and played tough last night with 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and only 1 turnover. Ava Dunn made 7 of 15 shots from the field to lead us in scoring. She had a couple of big steals early that got us going. Olivia Hodum who is playing with a surgically repaired ACL and a torn ACL in the other knee played her best game of the season. She kept Leake’s big girl (senior Katye Jones) in check all night. Peyton Purvis, my other senior, stepped up big on offense and defense with nine points. It seemed like every time Leake made a run Peyton came up with a bucket or a stop to end that run. (Sophomore point guard) Jayda Smith took care of the ball for us and hit some big shots. Lauren Brown and Brooke Blackledge both gave us some minutes and several points. This was a great win for us. We had to regroup after Elie went down since she was averaging 10 points and 4-5 rebounds per game. Our motto is Heart and Guts and that’s exactly what we played with last night. I’m really proud of my team.”
Simpson jumped out to an 11-0 lead, led 22-14 after one quarter, 35-20 at halftime and 44-34 after three quarters and never trailed in the game.
Dunn set a MAIS record last season when she made 11 3-pointers – tying for second best in Mississippi history – and scored a school record 40 points against Wesson. She started off Friday night like she was going to break her scoring record with her torrid scoring show in the first quarter. Dunn scored seven of Simpson’s first 11 points. She had three 3-pointers, four field goals and four of 6 free throws for her 21 points.
“We knew that the way to beat Leake was to come out hot and ready to play,” said Dunn, who is averaging 15.1 points this season and was four short of her season high of 25 points against Tri-County Academy. “Playing Leake always gets us excited, and we were definitely looking to pay them back from last year (losing in the state semifinals). I think as a team we have finally learned how to play together after losing four seniors last year.”
Senior Caroline Cheatham had 12 points – three 3-pointers – and sophomore Jenna Allen had 11 points off the bench.
“They got out to a really fast start offensively,” said Leake coach Amanda Hatch, who has a 340-43 record – an amazing 88.8 percent winning percentage – in her 10th season at Leake and has 455 career wins in her 15th season as a head coach. She has led Leake to the Overall finals four of the last five seasons, winning in 2021.
“We were able to improve our defense as the game went on but couldn’t overcome a poor-shooting, offensive night. We missed 18 shots around the basket.”
SIMPSON BOYS 61, LEAKE 59 (OVERTIME)
Chanse Funchess, a 6-5 junior forward, had 18 points, 6-1 junior guard Gage Smith – son of former All-State Mendenhall High guard and Mississippi State guard Brad Smith – had 17 points and 6-3 senior forward Colin Jenkins 11 points to lead defending 5A state champion and last year’s Overall semifinalist Simpson.
Samuel Prince – a 6-1 sophomore guard and son of the former Mississippi high school 3-point record holder Philip Prince from Leake – had a game-high 32 points. It was his second 30-point game in as many nights. He had a career-high 39 points in a win over Wayne Academy Thursday night.
Simpson improved to 16-3 overall and 5-0 in district play. Leake dropped to 18-7 overall and 4-1 in district play.
Simpson rallied from a 17-9 first quarter and a 33-22 halftime deficit for the victory. Simpson outscored Leake 19-5 in the third quarter to take a 41-38 lead.
Leake junior Jack Harkins hit a 3-pointer with 1 second to play to send the game into overtime.
“I thought we played well in spots,” Simpson coach Josh McNulty said. “Leake did a great job of speeding us up on offense in the first half. Leake is so well coached, and their players play really hard and together. We didn’t match their energy and passion in the first half and the halftime score was a reflection of that. I thought we came out after halftime and did a much better job of playing with that same intensity level and once we were able to match that, we started making some plays. Leake and Simpson have been rivals for a long time and I anticipate our matchups are going to be hard fought from here on out. We had a couple of opportunities to close it out in regulation, but credit goes to Leake for forcing us into some turnovers and hitting a buzzer beater to push it to overtime. Our guys are tough and battled tested. I love our team and last night in a hostile environment. We found a way to beat a really good team on their home court.”
“We had a good first half, and we really guarded well early on,” Leake coach Jason Morgan said. “It was the second night on a back-to-back for us, and the defense was a little sluggish in the third. But I credit my kids for how hard they fought back in the fourth, hit some huge shots to force OT, and gave us every opportunity to win down the stretch.”
