Stopped one step short

CENTERVILLE - Everything was going right for Centerville.

The Bulldogs held a 13-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the defense held a powerful Simsboro offense in check and the CHS offense was hitting the shots necessary to keep Simsboro off balance.

But there was one problem — foul trouble. Most of Centerville’s starters had three fouls or more.

It didn’t take long for the visiting Tigers to exploit that one problem. Led by a 35-point effort from Gavin Mitchell, Simsboro slowly pulled in Centerville and forced three players to foul out and the result was a 79-72 win which knocked the Bulldogs out of the Class B playoffs Friday night, one game short of returning to the Top 28 next week in Lafayette.

“We just knew it was going to be a fourth quarter game. It was last year,” said Simsboro coach Lance Waldron, whose team advanced to the Top 28 for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 1995. “The same thing happened last year, it was just in reverse. We led the whole game last year and they were able to pull it out in the end and this year the opposite happened.

“It was just a great game.”

Simsboro won thanks in large part to Mitchell, who took over in the fourth quarter and scored 18 of his 35 points in the final period, including 9-for-9 on free throws, and Waldron, who decided to attack Centerville in the second half knowing that the Bulldogs were in foul trouble and taking a chance on how the referees were going to call the game.

“We adjusted our game to what the officials were doing,” said Waldron. “Different associations tend to call different ways and we were able to adjust to the way they were calling and were able to take advantage of it.”

The change in strategy hurt Centerville as the Bulldogs couldn’t be as aggressive with many of their players in foul trouble. Dominic Dennis fouled out with 6:29 left in the fourth quarter, Calvin Sanders fouled out with 2:40 left and T.J. Kemp fouled out in the final minute.

“We led throughout the game and we had a comfortable margin in the fourth quarter but we were in foul trouble the whole ball game,” said Centerville coach Randy Bergeron. “They made a run at us and we couldn’t stop their penetration. Every time they got into the paint, they were going to the free throw line if they didn’t make the shot.

“When they’d miss, they were crashing the boards and out-physicalled us on the boards. We just didn’t bow up on the boards and they got second and third shots.”

Mitchell, who played most of the second half with four fouls, proved to be the spark that Simsboro (40-3) needed. His 35 points included a remarkable 20-of-23 from the free throw line.

“We were down 19 earlier in the season and down 19 in another game and 16 three different times this year and come back and pulled out a close win in the end,” said Waldron. “These guys just don’t quit.

“Mitchell could score 30 every night but we don’t ask him to. But tonight he kind of had to step up and score more points. He’s going to hit 18, 20 every single night. He’s the leader of the team and going into the fourth quarter I was going to sit him down but I asked him and he said he could do it. I have faith in him, I believe he can do anything in the world. I left it up to him.”

While Centerville will not make a repeat trip to the Top 28, it was not a disappointing season according to Bergeron, whose team finished the season 31-12.

“We had them where we wanted them but we got tired and their No. 3 (Mitchell) is a terrific player,” said Bergeron. “That’s three straight 30 win seasons. That senior group that’s leaving, Andy (Lanclos), Dominic (Dennis), Calvin (Sanders) and Chris (Sams) is probably the most successful group to leave here.”

Lanclos finished with 18 points, Sanders had 13 points, Dennis contributed 7 points and Sams had 6 in the loss. Jovan Sanders led CHS with 19 points.

For Simsboro, Bennie Roberson had 14 and Olaolu Ogunyemi added 10 points.

“It’s disappointing in that we lost some players and we lost some chemistry this year,” said Bergeron.

“We struggled with chemistry issues all year long. We had it last year but we were missing a little something this year.

“We fell apart in the fourth quarter when they were making that run and that’s uncharacteristic of us. We lost some of the pixie dust we had last year and weren’t able to recover.”