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Sports

Simley Girls Battle Hard, But Fall to North

Visiting North St. Paul used a strong inside game to pull away from the hard-working Spartans Friday in a key conference showdown.

The Simley High School girls basketball team made a heartfelt effort four days before Valentine’s Day, but it wasn’t enough to knock off the visiting North High Polars on Friday.

North St. Paul took advantage of Simley inside the paint all game long and held off a scrappy bunch of Spartans 58-46 in a Classic Suburban Conference game at Inver Grove Heights.

It was a rugged contest, both coaches agreed.

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“It was a basketball game and a rugby match both,” said North St. Paul coach Dan Larson.

“Our kids played really hard tonight,” said Simley head coach Tim Peper. “We talked about how we need to be scrappy and we need to get every loose ball and we need to work to get every single rebound."

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“And then we made some decisions that probably weren’t so smart,” Peper added. “That’s why you play these games and that’s why it’s nice to play a quality opponent like North, because we learn from that so when the games really count in sections hopefully we don’t make those same silly mistakes.”

North St. Paul improved to 9-2 in the conference (14-7 overall) and remained in second place behind league-leading Hill Murray.

Brittney Willaert scored 19 points, including six three-pointers, to lead Simley. Alexis Boyd-Lockett added 16 points, but after that the Spartans’ scoring dropped off with no other player managing more than four.

“It was a tough loss,” said Willaert. “We knew we wanted to win this one. It’s kind of a big rival. We lost by three or four last time so I knew we could handle it, we just didn’t finish."

“Definitely our boarding was not on tonight,” Willaert added. “We couldn’t get a box out.”

Simley fell to 5-6 in the Classic Suburban Conference and 15-7 on the season.

The Spartans used some sharp outside shooting to hang with the Polars for most of the first half. Boyd-Lockett drained a three to start the game and Willaert and Nelson followed as Simley took a 17-16 lead with 5:16 to play in the first half. But North got its inside game going and outscored the Spartans 16-4 over the final five minutes of the opening half to take a 32-21 lead.

Simley threw a scare into the Polars in the second half, closing a 14-point deficit to 49-41 with 2:40 to play after a three by Willaert. But North regained its composure and was able to nail down the win, thanks in part to the team's accurate free throw shooting in the final two minutes.

“I was happy with us keeping our composure and most times staying positive,” said Boyd-Lockett. “Some things I wasn’t happy with was our fouls. We need to work on our defense more.”

Simley hosts Waseca in a non-conference contest Friday, Feb. 18, with the varsity game starting at 7:30 p.m.

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