The ceremony before the boys basketball game between Weston and Simsboro where Jace Holt and Cooper Harvey were honored on Senior Night was the highpoint of the evening. Things went downhill from there though as Simsboro rolled to an easy 93-56 victory.
In fairness to the Wolves, who lost a fourth straight and fell to 9-17 overall and 0-4 in district 2B play, the outcome was pretty much expected. Simsboro is simply a juggernaut this year. Actually, in most every year and easy wins are more the norm than the exception. The victory was the 12th in a row for the second ranked team in Class B who improved to 19-1 overall and 4–0 in district play.
Holt did everything he could by scoring 19 points in the contest and Weston was somewhat in striking distance, trailing by only 42-29 after the first two quarters. Simsboro, who scored 20 or more points in every quarter then put the game on ice in the third by outscoring the Wolves 27-12.
Davis Tolar added 11 for Weston followed by seven each from C.J. Steward and Landon Roberts. Braden Theriot scored four, Eli McBride and Kaden Shirly had three and Tate Henderson scored a second quarter basket to round out the scoring. The very deep Tigers had ten players score in the contest and five in double figures led by Jamarion Cato’s 21 and 17 from Chilaydrien Netwton, who made three trey’s in the first quarter.
| Weston (9-17, 0-4) | 10 | 19 | 12 | 15 | 56 |
| Simsboro (19-1, 4-0) | 20 | 22 | 27 | 24 | 93 |
WHS scoring: Holt 19, Tolar 11, Steward 7, Roberts 7, Theriot 4, McBride 3, Shirley 3, Henderson 2
SHS scoring: Cato 21, Newton 17, Tyler 15, Maryland 13, Abney 10, Outley 7, McCallister 4, Wright 2, Brantley 2, Taylor 1
Choudrant 57 Weston 51 (Tuesday, February 2): A slow start spelled doom for the Wolves as Choudrant made a seven point halftime advantage stand up. The loss left Weston winless at 0-3 in 2B play at the half way point of the district schedule and dropped the overall record to 9-16. With their first district win in three tries Choudrant improved 12-9 on the year.
Hardly anything went right for Weston in the first half as only two players made field goals and three scored. At the end of the first quarter it was Choudrant 11 and Davis Tolar 7. By the half which found Choudrant leading 24-17, Davis had added another two points, Jace Holt had 7 and Landon Roberts a free throw.
Holt, who has been Weston’s most prolific scorer all season, finally caught fire in the second half to finish with 24. Tolar ended up with 11 and Kaden Shirley added 9 second half points. Roberts followed with 3 and both Braden Theriot and Eli McBride had two. Choudrant placed two players in double figures with Sammy Smith scoring 19 and Trey Harris adding 11.
| Weston (9-16, 0-3) | 7 | 10 | 21 | 13 | 51 |
| Choudrant (12-9, 1-2) | 11 | 13 | 22 | 11 | 57 |
WHS scoring: Holt 24, Tolar 11, Shirley 9, Roberts 3, Theriot 2, McBride 2
CHS scoring: Smith 19, Harris 11, Williams 8, Carter 6, Thompson 6, Batterton 3, Simonton 2
Quitman drops pair of games to fall out of district 2B title chase
In what has to be considered an upset Choudrant beat Quitman 63-59 this past Friday night. Now the question is who will finish in second place in the district? In reality that was probably the question all along. After all 2B is where Simsboro resides, who is a perfect 43-0 ever since they moved into district 2B in 2013
Despite losing to Simsboro this past Tuesday by an 82-64 score, Quitman still had a punchers chance to at least share the title if they could shock Simsboro next week entering into Friday’s parish border battle with Choudrant. It is all a mute point now. Simsboro will win their 8th straight district 2B title and the only thing left to wonder is whether the Wolverines or Choudrant will come in second. Both have Simsboro and Weston still to play.
Choudrant 63 Quitman 59 (Friday, February 5): The Aggies evened the season series with a home victory after falling to Quitman by a similar score two weeks ago on the road. It is safe to say the two are fairly equal to each other as evidenced by the quarter by quarter score that showed the two teams both won a period by one point , tied one and Choudrant took the second frame by four, which ended up being the difference in the game.
Where there was a difference it was in the number of three pointers that were made as Choudrant drained 8 from behind the arc compared to just 3 for Quitman. Choudrant also made four more free throws. On Quitnan’s behalf they had a 24-21 edge in field goals. Now both stand 2-2 in district play. Quitman has now dropped back to back games for the second time this season to fall to 16-5 overall after stringing together 11 straight victories while Choudrant improves to 13-8 on the year.
In the “now that is ironic” category, both teams were led in scoring by players named Smith and Williams. For Quitman it was Joshua Smith and Cooper Williams ending the night with 15 and 13 points respectively whle Choudrant was led by Chris Williams with 24 and Sammy Smith with 16.
| Quitman (16-5, 2-2) | 18 | 14 | 8 | 19 | 59 |
| Choudrant (13-8, 2-2) | 18 | 18 | 7 | 20 | 63 |
QHS scoring: Smith 15, Williams 13, Carter 8, Pabaya 8, Simonelli 5, Everett 4, Ponder 4, Manning 2
CHS scoring: Williams 24, Smith 16, Harris 8, Batterton 5, Thompson 3, Carter 3, Simonten 2
Simsboro 82 Quitman 64 (Tuesday, February 2): There were some positives to take away from the lopsided loss. For the first eight minutes the Wolverines played virtually even with Simsboro trailing only 18-16 and Quitman had gotten to with eight midway through the third quarter after trailing by 14 at the half. The Wolverines also held Simsboro below their 6th ranked nationally points per game average.
Another positive was that Ty Simonelli scored a season high 8 points. Not bad when considering it was done against the second ranked Class B team in the state. Positives don’t count as victories in the standings though and the Wolverines saw their season best 11 game winning streak come to a screeching halt.
Joshua Smith and Cooper Williams both scored 19 for Quitman while Simsboro also had two share the scoring lead with Jamarion Cato and Chilaydrien Netwton both tallying 24 for the Tigers who stretched their winning streak to twelve straight.
| Quitman (16-4, 2-1) | 16 | 16 | 22 | 10 | 64 |
| Simsboro (18-1, 3-0) | 18 | 26 | 23 | 15 | 82 |
QHS scoring: Smith 19, Williams 19, Simonelli 8, Pabaya 5, Carter 3, Manning 2, Everett 2
SHS scoring: Newton 24, Cato 24, Maryland 11, Taylor 9, Crawford 7, Tyler 2, Wright 2,. McCallister 2, Abney 2
Saline throws scare in Doyline before falling 75-70
It would have been perhaps the most remarkable rally of the year. It would have been but it wasn’t. The game effort by Saline that saw them rally from 14 down in the first half to take a one point lead over the defending Class B state champions with just 2:30 left in the game at one of the most hostile atmosphere’s you will find in the state came up just short.
Doyline won their 12th straight this year and 41st straight over the past two years. That includes their fifth straight in District 1B play which secures the title for the second straight year. Kenton Lee Crawford, who has had the knack of coming up big against really good opponents, led Saline while burly Ethan Roberts scored 18 points and pulled down 12 boards for Saline which fell to 3-2 in district play and 7-8 overall.
Additional area scores:
Friday, February 5:
Arcadia 63, Simsboro 62
Cedar Creek 51 Tensas 47
Dodson 66 Castor 55
Lincoln Prep 58 Homer 53
Ouachita 47 Ruston 39
ASH 62 West Ouachita 32
Red River 57 Winnfield 42
Thursday, February 4:
Calvin 89 Georgetown 47
Arcadia 62 Lincoln Prep 56
West Monroe 62 West Ouachita 45
Tuesday, February 2:
Arcadia 63 Haynesville 27
Calvin 90 Central-Jonesville 47
Oak Grove 65 Cedar Creek 47
Saline 69 Dodson 63
Calvary Baptist 67 Lincoln Prep 52
Ruston 68 Pineville 30
West Ouachita 65 Tensas 51