Simpson advances with win over Silliman
Southern Sports & Travel
The Simpson Lady Cougars punched their ticket to the semi-finals of the Class AA South State Tournament last night with a 52-27 win over Silliman in round two action from Mendenhall. Nine Lady Cougars scored on the night including Abby Dunston and Lauren Griffin, who combined for 21 points, as seventh ranked Simpson improved to 25-8 and will await the winner of Brookhaven and Sylva Bay.
Simpson would yield the first basket of the game but that would be the only lead Silliman would enjoy the remainder of the contest.
Brittany Gardner’s basket at the 4:23 mark of the opening quarter gave Simpson their first lead at 3-2 and the Lady Cougars would cap off a 9-0 run at the 1:41 mark to extend their margin to 9-2.
(Above) Simpson's August Knight (#24) drives for 2 of her 8 points on the night
Simpson took an 11-4 lead into the second quarter and would stretch their advantage to 19-8 following a Callie Martin bucket in the paint with 1:16 remaining in the half.
Silliman pulled to within 8 points at 19-11 on an Ashley Hurst 3-pointer from the wing but Simpson fired back with two consecutive 15 foot jumpers from Lauren Griffin and Abby Dunston’s offensive rebound and put back at the horn to take a 25-11 cushion into intermission.
Each squad scored 8 points in the third quarter.
Silliman’s Ashley Hurst drained her second 3-pointer to open up the fourth quarter to pull the Lady Wildcats to within 11 points at 33-22 but Simpson exploded with a 17-2 run capped off by Micah Windham’s basket in the paint with just over one minute remaining in the contest to extend the lead to 50-24 en-route to a 52-27 win.
“I like where my team is right now,” said Simpson head coach David Granville.
“We need to cut down on turnovers but I thought we executed our game plan perfectly tonight.”
Abby Dunston led Simpson with 11 points, Lauren Griffin added 10, August Knight and Brittany Gardner had 8 each, Hallie Stubbs and Micah Windham had 4 apiece, Natalie Sullivan 3 and Callie Martin 2 and Lacey Thames 2 each.
Silliman was led by Bradleigh Brignac with 10 points, Kayla Davidson added 8, Ashley Hurst 6 and Morgan Ohlinger 3.
