D’IBERVILLE — The Homestanding D’Iberville Lady Warriors went into the locker room at halftime Tuesday night on the final day of their Thanksgiving Tournament trailing West Harrison 21-17. After making some defensive adjustments, the Lady Warriors erased the deficit in less than four minutes of the second half and overpowered West Harrison with rebounding and defense to secure a 51-36 victory.
“We came out (the second half) and changed our defense,” D’Iberville coach Robin Jeffries said. “We went to man-to-man pressure.”
Despite the victory, which improved D’Iberville to 5-3, Jeffries wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance.
“Bad, terrible, very poor,” was Jeffries’s assessment of her team’s first-half play. “Like we had already gone away for Thanksgiving. We went into the locker room, made some adjustments, came back, and played a little better in the second half.”
Amiyah Simpkins, who failed to score in the first half, ignited her team in the third quarter with a pair of 3-pointers from the left corner to put the Lady Warriors up 25-23. She later buried another 3 from the top of the key as the Lady Warriors outscored the Lady Hurricanes 19-9 in the period.
“She came on in the second half. She needs to be a little more aggressive,” Jeffries said of Simpkins.
The Lady Warriors continued their dominance in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Hurricanes 15-7.
Simpkins finished with a team-high 16 points, Teeale Wells scored 15, and Ajanay Jefferson added 12.
The top scorer for West Harison was Jalynn Applewhite with 11 points.
D’Iberville’s next game is on Dec. 2 at Hancock. WEst Harrison plays Yazoo City Saturday afternoon in Poplarville at Pearl River Community College.
In other game action Tuesday in ‘D’Iberville, the Columbia girls beat Ocean Springs 60-32 to tip things off on Tuesday. as the loss overshadowed a 21-point effort from Lady Greyhound Starr Jackson. Also, in another game featuring a “Southern Six” squad, Presbyterian Christian out of Hattiesburg beat Bay High 50-36 as the Lady Tigers got 10 points apiece from Kierra Burney and Nakeria Coleman in the loss.
On the boys’ side of the ledger, Biloxi beat Bay High 59-20 as Demarion Hayes recorded nine points to lead the Indians. Also, West Harrison beat up on Columbia 58-35 as Jazear Carter tallied 14 points and Kameron Bolden added nine points for the Hurricanes. The host D’Iberville Warriors fell to Tupelo 46-41 despite getting 12 points on four 3-pointers from Connor Hunsicker and 11 points from Juan Santiago. And, Presbyterian Christian thumped Long Beach 86-36. Keveun Smyer scored eight points for the Bearcats. The Bobcats from Hattiesburg were impressive in picking up two wins in two days in this event, including a 72-22 win over Bay High on Monday.
