By Robert Wilson
The Simpson Academy girls basketball team scared Madison-Ridgeland Academy – the top ranked team in the MAIS – last Friday night, but the Lady Patriots escaped with a one-point overtime victory at Simpson.
Simpson did much more than scare MRA Thursday afternoon in the MAIS Class 4A semifinals at Copiah Academy.
In one of the biggest comebacks in MAIS playoffs history, Simpson rallied from as much as 24 points down for a miraculous, 48-46 victory over MRA in the MAIS South Class 4A semifinals at Copiah Academy in a battle between the top two rated teams in MAIS Class 4A.
Simpson senior guard and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College softball signee Jayda Smith – who scored 20 points, nine in fourth quarter – completed the comeback with a 5-foot jumper in the lane with 11 seconds play. MRA had a chance to win, but Simpson blocked a shot on a drive and eighth-grader Gracie Pinkerton got the rebound, and made one free throw with 1.2 seconds to play for the final score. She missed the second free throw, but MRA couldn’t get the ball up the court to attempt a shot.
Simpson – ranked No. 16 in Mississippi and No. 2 in MAIS Class 4A – improved to 25-5 and defeated MRA for the first time in three meetings this season.
Simpson meets defending MAIS Overall Tournament champion Parklane, a 47-36 winner over Jackson Prep in the other semifinal, Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the championship game. Simpson and Parklane will play in the Division I state tournament next week and Thursday’s wins also gives the two schools a berth in the Overall Tournament in two weeks at Mississippi College in Clinton. All four teams in the Division I tournament advance to the Overall.
MRA – ranked No. 6 in Mississippi and No. 1 in MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – dropped to 29-5, broke its 13-game winning streak and lost to an MAIS team for the first time this season. All four of MRA’s other losses are to MHSAA teams (No. 1 Biloxi, No. 4 Tishomingo County, No. 7 Neshoba Central, and No. 8 Choctaw Central). MRA’s last loss to an MAIS team was when the Lady Patriots lost to Parklane for the MAIS Overall Tournament championship last season.
MRA meets Prep Saturday at 12:15 p.m. in the third place game. MRA and Prep will play in the Division II tournament next week at Prep in Flowood. The two teams who play in next week’s Division II tournament will make Overall.
Thursday’s game looked like it was going to be like the first meeting between these MRA and Simpson on Jan. 13 at MRA when MRA held Simpson without a field goal for the first 10 1/2 minutes, led by 21 points at halftime and cruised to a 46-27 victory to end Simpson’s 12-game winning streak.
Thursday night, MRA jumped out to a 21-8 lead after the first quarter and led 35-11 – MRA’s largest lead of the game – with 2:50 to play in the first half before Simpson closed the gap to 38-20 at halftime.
MRA led 44-22 with 4:30 to play in the third quarter before Simpson went on a 13-0 run (six points by Smith, four by freshman Elle McNulty and a three-point play by senior Maggie Shivers), to close the gap to 44-35 with 7:05 to play in the game.
After MRA junior Anna Morgan Anderson made two free throws – MRA’s only points in the fourth quarter – with six minutes to play, Simpson held MRA scoreless the rest of the way.
Smith and Shivers made back to back 3-pointers to cut the MRA lead to 46-45 with 1:55 to play, MRA continued to make turnovers – 12 in the second half compared to two in the first half – to give Simpson opportunities to win.
MRA’s 12th turnover with 25 seconds to play gave Simpson one last chance. Simpson passed the ball around then Smith got the ball on the right wing, drove into the lane, pulled up in front of two MRA defenders and made her game-winning 5-footer.
“We were down 18 at half and actually went down by 22 early in the third quarter. But my kids just kept battling and kept battling,” said Simpson coach Linda Dear, who has 672 career wins to go along with four state championships, all at Simpson, in her 40 career seasons. 23 seasons at Simpson. “When we got it down to 10 points, I knew that we were going to win. Every kid who played and every kid on my bench had a part in this win, plus our crowd was awesome. Jayda and Maggie are our leaders and I had no doubt that they would step up and do whatever they needed to do to help us win. Maggie is just a beast on defense and Jayda got us going on offense. A great team win.
“Last night’s game was one of the two greatest comebacks I have ever been a part of. The first one was in 1993. We were playing Leake for the state championship and we were behind by 17 at the half. That group refused to quit and we came back and won by 1 or two points. This year’s group reminds me so much of that group.”
In addition to Smith’s 20 points and seven rebounds, McNulty had 13 points (7 of 9 from the free throw line). Shivers had eight points and senior center Brooke Blackledge had 5 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
“After Friday night, we knew that if we faced them again, it was going to be another hard-fought game,” Smith said. “In the first half, we faced some adversity, but at halftime, we settled down and played the way we knew we could, which allowed us to come back from being down 22 points and win the game.”
“Losing by one point last Friday night to MRA made us feel sick to our stomachs and our team decided that no matter what happened tonight we were leaving everything on the court as a team,” Shivers said. “After halftime, we kept our composure, played together as a team and came out on top. This would had never happened without our amazing coaches and teammates.”
“Before the game, Coach Dear talked about believing in ourselves and trusting God and our game plan,” McNulty said. “Although we came out a little slow, after halftime we made the decision to fight and give it our all.”
“If I’m going to be honest, I had a bad feeling going to the locker room at halftime,” Blackledge said. “But Coach Dear said to believe in ourselves and that is exactly what we did. It was a great team win and I am so proud of everyone, including our fans.”
“We played not to lose in the second half,” said MRA coach Stephen Force’s 806 wins (666 at MRA) along with three Overall titles, four Overall runner-up finishes and three state championships in his 30-year coaching career, the last 24 years at MRA. Force is second behind Pillow coach Durwin Carpenter in girls basketball victories among active MAIS coaches. “We were the aggressor in the first half and we were not in the second half. That was the difference. We let up. Simpson came right at us and we backed off. They played tougher than us in the second half. Simpson was mentally tougher than we were. They didn’t do anything different in the first half then they did in the second half. They believed in themselves and that they could come back and win. We had the ‘deer in the headlight’ look. There is nothing a coach can do but hope they can play through it. We will need to snap out of it to play well in our next game and the rest of the season.”
Senior guard Gabby Gray had 12 points, junior guard Anna Kate Woodward and junior guard Anna Morgan Anderson had 11 points each for MRA. Senior guard-forward and West Florida signee Presley Hughes had 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocked shots, Woodward had five rebounds, and senior forward Annie Toler had five blocked shots.
