HANCEVILLE, Ala.- The Wallace State Lady Lions, ranked 13th in the NJCAA, continued their hot start to the season with a 79-41 thrashing of the Motlow State Bucks on Thursday night. Leading Wallace State was guard Leah Childress, who scored all of her team-high 15 points on three-pointers off the bench.
Childress was one of four to record double digit points, with forward Sinaya Gibson scoring 14 and recording seven rebounds and an assist. Kameron Sanders and Idaysa Mercer both dropped also 12 points on the night. The win boosted their record to 10-0, keeping them undefeated over a third of the way into the regular season.
The first quarter ended with Wallace State leading 12-7 and by halftime, the game felt out of reach for the Bucks. Wallace State’s defense is suffocating, playing a tight half-court press no matter the score or time. It’s an extremely frustrating style of basketball for opposing offenses, and one that Motlow State couldn’t handle. There were three instances in the first half alone of the Bucks committing shot clock violations due to the defensive pressure. Causing a couple of those was the erratic defense of Lions’ guard Bailey Tetro, who had a cold shooting night but still recorded three points, six assists, a block and a steal.
The second half saw Wallace State pull away further, with Gibson scoring 12 of her 14 points down low against a tired Bucks defense. Then, a 14-4 run closed out a 38 point victory.
“We did some good, did some bad, got a long way to go. These are all kind of like quizzes getting us ready for the test, which is coming up in January when conference play starts on the 15th. So, we use these non-conference games to help prepare you and figure out a rotation – figure out who you’re gonna start, who’s on the bench, figure out what lineup works well, who fits well together,” Lady Lions’ head coach Joseph Simmons said on the win.
They’ve passed with flying colors thus far, with an average margin of victory of 33 points, a 41-percent team field goal percentage and 45 rebounds a game on average. It’s domination, which is nothing new to the Lady Lions who won the Alabama Community College Conference last season for the first time in 14 years in Simmons’ first season as head coach. After that, they made it to the NJCAA D1 championship tournament in Wyoming, where they would ultimately lose in the second round.
“It’s been fun getting to see this older group of girls get to mesh together, the seven returners from last year and the new players we brought in to go with them. That’s the fun part of coaching is bringing those people together and getting them to buy into the team concept, because it doesn’t matter how good you are individually, we all need each other. This team could accomplish some special things this year, but we’re nowhere near our ceiling and that’s a good thing, we don’t want to be playing our best basketball in December,” Simmons said.
Team building and sustained success are becoming a rarity in lower levels of college sports in the age of NIL and the portal. It’s an area Simmons has excelled in, though, with players like Childress and forward Taylor Smith outside of his starting five. In limited action, Smith recorded six points, six rebounds and an assist. On building as deep a roster as he has, Simmons actually credited the transfer portal, saying now that universities are focusing on the portal, he’s been able to land higher quality high school players.
With the bulk of his roster graduating after this season, Simmons acknowledged there would be new challenges in the team building aspect. The Lady Lions began their reloading process on signing day this past week, however, landing six high school recruits. Three came from inside the state of Alabama, with Hazel Green’s Jurnee Moore, Bob Jones’ Jael Robinson and Hillcrest’s Blakely Nixon signing alongside three out-of-state signees.
Whether he’s winning on the recruiting trail or on the court, Simmons has a hallmark trait of a great coach, never being satisfied. Up nearly 20 points in the third quarter during a timeout, the coach was animated, upset at his team for seemingly taking their foot off the gas.
“You can’t let them relax, you can’t let them get complacent and let them be satisfied with the win. Like yes, we win, that’s great, but the win is a byproduct of hard work and doing things day in and day out over and over until it becomes a habit,” Simmons said. He added, “We don’t want to get bored with the process, you know? We have to enjoy the process and let the results take care of themselves. Gotta put our hard hat on and come to work.”
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