[11/18/01]Marguerite Sims doesn’t like playing point guard.

If she keeps distributing the ball the way she did in Saturday’s 72-60 win over Hinds AHS, she’d better learn to like it.

“I’d rather play on the wing,” the Vicksburg High senior said with a smile. “But I’ll do whatever I have to do to help the team.”

Sims, playing her first game at point guard since starter Shalonda Williams was lost for the season with a knee injury, had seven assists to go with her eight points and five rebounds.

“I’ll take that,” VHS coach Mike Coleman said after hearing Sims’ statistics. “If I can get that out of a starting point guard every time, I’ll be happy.”

Coleman had plenty of other reasons to be happy despite watching his team’s second-quarter collapse, which helped the Lady Bulldogs (3-3) pull within seven after having trailed by as much as 24.

Eleven of his players scored as the Missy Gators (4-4) reached .500 for the first time since he arrived in 1999.

“That’s the kind of balance I want,” he said, adding that the record “gives us something to build on.”

LaToya Trunell and Rae Evans both had 12 points and six rebounds while Tricia Dart had nine points, all in the first half. Tiffany Hubbard chipped in eight.

Tosha Jordan, who missed last season with a knee injury, scored 16 to lead the Lady Bulldogs, but it was Deidra Wilcher who sparked them. She came off the bench and hit four 3-pointers in the second quarter as Hinds made it 42-31 at the half.

VHS led 28-8 going into the second quarter and made it 40-16 on a Brandi Hall-to-Katina Cooper breakaway with 2:25 left in the half.

That’s when Wilcher started lighting it up.

“We played a fantastic first quarter,” Coleman said. “We might have panicked when they started hitting 3s.”

And when they panicked, the game took a frenzied pace.

“They got us into their style,” Coleman said. “It looked haywire.

“We’ve got to play better defense without fouling,” added Coleman, whose team committed 17 first-half fouls.

Wilcher’s trey in third quarter pulled Hinds within eight, 44-36, but Hubbard hit a basket then dished to Evans and Dart got a steal and passed off to Sims for another quick basket.

In the fourth, VHS’ Timeka Wright converted a four-point play after getting Amanda Williams to commit her fifth foul on her 3-pointer.

Wilcher finished with 19 points, including five 3-pointers on 5-of-7 shooting.

Asked if she usually shoots like that, Hinds coach Robert Baker said, “I wish she did.”

Baker said that a division game with Piney Woods Friday night took a toll on his team.

“We’re not usually that slow getting started,” said Baker, who led his 2A team to a division championship last year. “Piney Woods took a lot out of us, then we had to be here in the morning … .”

Saturday’s game, originally scheduled for the afternoon, was rescheduled to 10 a.m. so players and coaches could go to the Alcorn State-Jackson State football game, which started at 3 p.m.

(B) VHS 62, Hinds AHS 41

The Gators (6-2) neutralized another “Dandy Dozen” player while Vicksburg High junior Devin Jones came off looking like one against the defending 2A state champion Bulldogs (1-4).

Jones, a 5-foot-10 point guard, was one assist short of a triple-double.

“Aww, man,” Jones said when told that he had 16 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. “That would have been my first one.”

VHS’ Willie Powers, who had four steals and two blocks, led all scorers with 18 while Hinds’ Samuel Richardson, who verbally committed to Mississippi State and was chosen one of the 12 best players in the state by The Clarion-Ledger, scored 16. The high-flying 6-5 forward had 15 in the second half, well after VHS had put the game away.

“We did a good job on him,” said VHS coach Dellie Robinson, whose team led 29-14 at the half. “We’re going to play defense if we don’t do anything else.”

Center Dewayne Jackson had eight points and seven rebounds for the Gators, who handled Jackie Butler in a win over McComb and VasShun Newborne in a loss to Natchez earlier this season. Both were “Dandy Dozen” selections.

“That gives us more confidence, going against them,” said Jones, who was playing with a sore thigh after taking a knee there in a win over Raymond Thursday.

Jones is having to play point guard while Chris Humes plays football.

“I’m just the only real ball-handler we have right now,” he said.

Robinson said Humes will still probably take over the job when he returns to the court.

“We played an overtime game at Piney Woods (Friday) night,” Bulldogs coach Keith Ferguson said. “We just didn’t have our legs.”