By Robert Wilson
BROOKHAVEN – Simpson Academy girls basketball coach Linda Dear has given plenty of motivational speeches to her teams during her successful 40-year head coaching career.
And Tuesday night, Dear was at again after Brookhaven Academy jumped out to a 15-point lead after the first quarter.
Dear also had some help to grab the attention of her players and try to make a comeback before the game got out of control.
“As a senior leader, my job is to keep everyone calm,” Simpson Academy senior point guard Jayda Smith said. “We started slow and didn’t finish well in transition, but I told them to stay aggressive on defense, force turnovers, and trust that our shot should fall. We did that, and it led to a comeback,”
Simpson Academy, led by Smith’s 26 points, roared back, closed the gap to eight points by halftime, took the lead in the third quarter and completed the comeback with a 61-54 victory in a MAIS Class 4A, District 3 game before an estimated 600 at Brookhaven Academy’s John R. Gray Gymnasium.
Simpson Academy – ranked No. 15 in Mississippi and No. 3 in MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – improved to 17-2 overall and 2-0 in district play and won its 10th straight game. Simpson’s only two losses are to East Rankin Academy – ranked No. 13 in Mississippi and No. 2 in MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – this season. East Rankin defeated Simpson Academy, 58-55 Nov. 6 at East Rankin and 57-53 Nov. 20 at Simpson.
This is Simpson’s best start since 2018-2019 when the Lady Cougars won 20 of their first 22 games, finished 31-8 and won the Class AAAA, Division II state championship and reached the Overall Tournament semifinals.
Brookhaven Academy – ranked No. 51 in Mississippi and No. 7 in MAIS Class 4A – dropped to 17-5 overall and 1-2 in district play and broke a five-game winning streak. Three of Brookhaven Academy’s losses are to Top 15 Mississippi teams – Madison-Ridgeland Academy (ranked No. 8 in Mississippi and No. 1 in MAIS Class 4A), and East Rankin twice. The Lady Cougars’ other loss was to Hartfield Academy (ranked No. 104 in Mississippi and No. 11 in MAIS Class 4A) in the season opener.
It appeared that Simpson Academy’s winning streak was going to end early on Tuesday.
Brookhaven Academy came out on fire, starting with a 3-pointer by sophomore Peyton Davis two minutes into the game for a 3-0 lead. Brookhaven Academy wasn’t having much trouble with Simpson Academy’s full court pressure and getting multiple layups, finding the open man and increasing the lead, and showing more energy than Simpson.
Brookhaven Academy junior guard Anne Rylea Thurman – who finished with a career-high 30 points – hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer for a 20-5 Brookhaven Academy lead.
Thurman connected on a 3-pointer from the wing for a 25-8 Brookhaven Academy lead with 6 minutes, 20 seconds to play in the second quarter, but Simpson Academy started its comeback and outscored Brookhaven Academy 15-6 the rest of the quarter and close the gap to 31-23 at halftime.
Simpson Academy’s momentum in the second quarter continued in the second half but Brookhaven Academy tried to hold onto the lead. Thurman made another 3-pointer for a 33-28 lead with 4:10 to play in the third quarter.
Simpson Academy went on a 12-0 run – the last points a layup by freshman Elle McNulty (daughter of Simpson assistant girls coach and head boys coach Josh McNulty) – for a 40-36 lead with 1:10 to play in the third quarter.
The 5-foot-6 Smith – who signed with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in softball – scored seven of her 26 points in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback victory. She scored 18 points in the second half, four 3-pointers. Smith made 8 of 19 shots from the field, 4 of 8 from 3-point range, and 6 of 11 from the free throw line, to go along with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot. The 5-8 McNulty added 16 points with a game-high 6 steals and 3blocked shots.
“I think we overlooked Brookhaven – we saw them play Clinton Christian last week in our tourney and they didn’t look real good,” said Dear, who won 666th game to go along with four state championships, all at Simpson, in her 40 career seasons. 23 seasons at Simpson. “Also, we play (defending MAIS Overall Tournament champion) Parklane (Academy) on Friday and I think maybe we were looking ahead to that game. We were down 20-5 at the end of the first quarter and were playing lazy and our shots weren’t falling. I challenged them pretty good and we got going in the second quarter. Jayda really got going and had a big steal and bucket at the end of the half. Maggie (Shivers) did a great job on Thurman and our shots started falling. I’m proud of the way the girls responded after the first quarter. Jayda is our leader and everyone feeds off her. When she got going, everybody stepped up. Elle had some big steals and a couple of blocks. I’m glad to get out of there with a win.”
“We came out very focused and very intense tonight and we did a good job of not just beating their pressure, but attacking it to score and probably played our best quarter of the year,” said Brookhaven Academy coach Drake Flowers, who is in his sixth year as a head coach, the last two years at Brookhaven Academy. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to put all four quarters together. Their pressure was relentless and they were able to prevent us from scoring off of it as the game went and started using their half court defensive pressure to speed us up and make us rush some things offensively and took us out of rhythm. They also were able to knock down some tough shots and made some tough plays so they really woke up offensively.”
The 5-8 Thurman had the biggest scoring night of her career. She made 9 of 15 shots from the field, 4 of 8 from 3-point range, and 8 of 10 shots from the free throw line along with 9 rebounds, 1 blocked shot and 1 steal. Thurman’s previous career high was 29 points. She did that against Presbyterian Christian as an eighth grader and Tri-County Academy earlier this season.
Thurman – who has an offer from Mississippi College – now has 63 3-pointers this season, second best in Mississippi behind Leake Academy’s Jenna Allen. She made her 300th 3-pointer of her career against Tri-County this season. Thurman now has 1,501 points in her career.
All that while battling tendinitis in her right (shooting) elbow, a situation she has played with all season. Thurman wears KT tape around her right elbow and arm every game to help with the tendinitis.
Thurman’s parents both have a basketball background. Her father, Chris, was a star at Brookhaven Academy, scoring an Overall Tournament championship game record 54 points in a triple-overtime win over MRA in 1989 and went on to to play at Mississippi College for Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame coach Mike Jones. Thurman’s mother, Kim, played basketball and softball at New Hope High, East Mississippi Community College and Mississippi College. Her parents met at MC.
“AR played probably her best game of the year tonight,” Flowers said. “Obviously in the scorebook she played well, but just her presence tonight was on another level. She was able to handle a very physical defensive presence from Simpson and find ways to score. Everyone knows she can shoot it, but tonight she managed to become more creative and find other ways to score. I have to do a better job of getting her in some different offensive situations at times depending on who she was guarding her but she’s done a good job of rolling with the punches so far, getting her teammates involved, and leading her team. Her teammates are also doing a good job of making plays around her, which is helps get her extra touches and takes some offensive pressure off of her. I’m really proud of all my girls tonight and how they competed. Now, we have to build off of it and be ready to go at it again. We play in the toughest conference in the association, so seeing us step up to our next challenge with be crucial.”
“I think we just came out with a lot of intensity and something to prove,” Thurman said. “We really wanted to beat them. As the game went on, we kind of settled and took a few plays off, which led them get several crucial buckets in the third quarter. We know we have a thin margin for error, so we have to make sure we keep the turnovers down and execute our offense. We played very hard tonight and did some great things, we just let it slip from us at the end.”
