UNION — The Sims Tigers opened conference play Monday by claiming a 39-32 win over Carver Middle.

Sims maintained an 11-point lead at intermission and used defensive pressure to keep Carver at bay in the second half. Meanwhile, the Tigers went on a tear in the third quarter, stretching their lead to 20 points before a late Carver run cut the margin to single digits.

Jason Rodgers led the Tigers’ scoring with 16 points. Douglas Brannon and Ty Washington added eight and seven points, respectively. Shi Smith contributed four points and proved to be valuable on the defensive end. Dabreon Scott and Daren Osbourne also scored for the Tigers.

“I was a little nervous to see how these guys would play in their first home game,” said Sims Coach Cam Willis. “Other than Douglas and Jason, these kids are all brand new to this team. It’s definitely been a work in progress and it will continue to be that way.

“I am proud of the kids and the effort that they gave,” Willis said. “I’ve told them all along that we have the athletes to come out every night and put pressure on our opponents with our defense. If they continue to believe that, we will have a chance to do some damage in the conference.”

The Tigers travel to McCracken today looking to improve to 2-0 in the Peach Tree Conference.

Sims girls battle Carver

The Sims girls battled Carver the entire game, but came up short in a 24-10 loss Monday. The Tigers used some exceptional defense in the first quarter to take the early 5-3 lead but were held scoreless throughout the second and third periods. Sims picked up five more points in the fourth quarter but had been outscored 10-0 in the middle frames.

“We just could not put the ball in the basket, even lay-ups and rebounded balls under the basket,” Coach Kenny Harris said after the game. “We just hit a stretch where we couldn’t do anything offensively, and then we couldn’t catch up since so many key players were in foul trouble. Our three starting guards fouled out of the game, but I thought our rookies did a pretty good job. Brooke (Smith), Samiya (Wood), Alexis (Beatty), Tay (Booker), and Aniya (Byrd) all played great defense for three quarters, before they tired and got into foul trouble. I also thought Katelyn (Petty) came in and gave us a defensive spark.”

Brooke Smith led the Tigers’ scoring with five points. Tay Booker and Me’Aria Thompson had two each and Abbie Valentine closed out the Sims scoring with a free throw.

The Tigers are now 1-3 for the season and travel to McCracken today.