HOLLANDALE — The Simmons High School girls basketball team soundly defeated Mount Olive, 62-27, Monday afternoon in the first round of the Class 1A state basketball tournament. The game was such a blowout that the clock ran for most of the final quarter, allowing most folks to get home in time for an early evening supper.
After the game, however, neither the Simmons coaches or players were tooting their own horns. When you are a team with a now 17-3 record like the Devilettes, you expect even more from yourself day in and day out.
While the Blue Devil players and coaches were happy with the victory, they said they were not satisfied with how they played.
“We could have done better,” said sophomore Taliyah Edwards. “This team has big goals. We need to work on our hustling, and we definitely need to work on our free throws.”
Simmons coach Bernita Alexander said her team was not as sharp as she had hoped. The Blue Devils are scheduled to play their second round opponent in Hollandale on Wednesday. Simmons will take on the winner of Tuesday’s game between Ethel-Richton.
“I don’t think we came out to play tonight,” said Alexander. “We missed a lot of plays. I don’t know why, but I know we have missed a couple of days of practice because of the weather.
“It was a good win. Any win this time of year is a good win so we just need to move forward. We will have a good solid day of practice tomorrow (Tuesday). The bigs are going to have to perform for us each night.”
Despite not being totally satisfied with their play, the Blue Devils sure did light up the scorebook on Monday. Taylor Lucas-Howard, again, led the way with 17 points, seven assists and five steals. Carl’Kaisha Lucas scored 10 points, and had four assists and six steals.
Nariah Robinson netted 10 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Akiah Prince scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds and recorded four steals. Taliyah Edwards scored six points and hauled in nine rebounds.
