TWU’s Simpson AAC player of year

Despite missing her team’s last six regular-season games with a broken wrist, Tennessee Wesleyan junior Hunter Simpson from Madisonville, Tenn., is the Appalachian Athletic Conference women’s basketball player of the year. Simpson was joined on the All-AAC first team by, among others, freshman of the year Karli Combs, Amber Levi and Deandra Luna from Bryan College and Sonoraville High School graduate Rebecca Cheeks of Reinhardt. Wesleyan’s Madison Walkup and Reinhardt’s Jada Hubbard from Heritage High were among the second-team selections, and Bryan’s Tonesha Allison made the all-defensive team. Luna and Shayla Ludy joined Bryan teammate Combs on the AAC all-freshmen team. Simpson was the league player of the week four times this season, including three in a row just before she got hurt, and she led the AAC with 19.2 points a game and also averaged 6.8 rebounds. Combs leads the co-champion Lady Lions with 14.3 points a game. Bryan also had the men’s freshman of the year, E.J. Bush,

who has averaged 14 points and 7.1 rebounds, and the Lions’ Oteriah Lee was an All-AAC first-teamer with Bush on the second team along with TWU’s Jalen Oliver and Kenny Dean. Bush also made the all-defensive and all-freshmen teams.

› Tennessee Wesleyan’s and Bryan’s women won AAC tournament quarterfinals Thursday at Kingsport, Tenn., but the eighth-seeded Wesleyan men lost 83-71 to No. 1 seed Union (Ky.) and Bryan’s third-seeded Lions fell 62-58 to Bluefield. Johnson Decembre led TWU (13-16) with 18 points and seven rebounds, and Kenny Dean scored 17 points. Jalen Oliver and Jordan Hall added 13 and 11. The TWU women (18-10) beat Brenau 70-64 behind

Hunter Simpson’s 27 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals, 17 points with four 3s from Madison Walkup and 12 points from

Hannah Cherry. E.J. Bush led Bryan’s men (17-13) with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Terrance Scales and Brice Cusick had eight rebounds each with nine and eight points. Bryan’s women (23-9) downed Milligan 69-64 as Deandra Luna and Amber Levi provided 20 and 19 points and seven and four steals and

Shayla Ludy scored 10 points. The top-seeded Reinhardt women (25-8) routed Bluefield 66-43 with 17 points from Sonoraville High School graduate Rebecca Cheeks. They play TWU at 6 this evening; Bryan plays at 8.

› The Lee University basketball teams ended their regular seasons with Gulf South Conference wins Thursday at Shorter, 84-51 for the Lady Flames and 79-73 for the Lee men.

Carrie Cheeks had 27 points, seven rebounds and four blocks and Abby Bertram scored 13 points in for the Lee women (22-6, 15-5), who will host a GSC tournament quarterfinal Tuesday. For the Flames (16-11, 11-9), Colton Blevins had 25 points and 10 rebounds and

Ryan Montgomery had 17 and eight.

› Carnilious Simmons had 29 points and 16 rebounds as Dalton State won 90-78 in a Southern States Athletic Conference game at Brewton-Parker. Also for the Roadrunners (22-6, 14-3), Mon’Darius Black had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Benat Hevia and Aaron Burress scored 14 points each.

› Chattanooga State sophomore Roger Davis is the TCCAA men’s basketball player of the week for games Feb. 12-18. He totaled 50 points on 22-of-27 shooting from the field in the Tigers’ two league wins and also had 22 rebounds, five steals, five assists and four blocked shots.

SOFTBALL

› Chattanooga State dropped to 9-5 this softball season with 1-0 and 9-7 losses Thursday at Wallace State-Hanceville. Jenna Edwards took the pitching loss in both games, the second in relief. She pitched a two-hitter with seven strikeouts in the opener, when Madison Tidmore had the Lady Tigers’ only hit. She was 2-for-4 and scored three runs in game two, while Kiley Longmire was 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and four RBIs.

› Covenant College beat Judson 4-2 and 9-1 in softball Thursday. Pitchers Sarah Huskey and Grace Turner combined on a four-hitter in the first game, Huskey with six strikeouts in five innings, and Jami Johnson batted in two runs and scored one while Shelby Ralston was 2-for-2 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Tyler Eppes and Joni Johnson combined on a two-hitter for the Lady Scots (6-8) in game two, when Casey Grover was 2-for-3 and matched Shannon Schmitt and Jada Allmon with two RBIs each. Faith Manning scored three runs.

SWIMMING

› Sewanee freshman Lee Haber officially made the All-Southern Athletic Associaton swimming and diving first team for his 200yard breaststroke victory in the league meet last week in Birmingham, and fellow Tigers swimmers Carl Failing, Jacob Finco, Andrew Freibert and divers Jed Henrichsen, Paisley Simmons and Noel Whitlock were All-SAA second team. Simmons in women’s 1-meter and Whitlock in women’s 3-meter qualified for the NCAA Division III regional meet March 2 in San Antonio. Sewanee’s Robert Coles and James Hoyt received All-SAA honorable mention.

BASEBALL

› Former Chattanooga Lookouts and major league pitcher Raphael “Lefty” Lumenti died this month in Milford, Mass., where he was born 81 years earlier and graduated from high school in 1954. He was a star for the Milford team that went to two consecutive American Legion World Series. He then pitched for the University of Massachusetts in Amherst until being drafted in 1957 by the Washington Senators, whose minor league affiliates included the Lookouts. Lumenti pitched in the majors for the Senators and their successors, the Minnesota Twins.