With a capacity crowd roaring, the clock down to the final precious seconds and the game on the line, Warren Central’s Jesse Wilson stepped to the free throw line Friday night and boiled everything down to one simple thought.

He was thirsty.

“It goes back to practice. Coach will put time up and if you don’t make free throws, you’ve got to run. Then he says once you hit two, go get some water. So I was just thinking, ‘Shoot two free throws, put us up and get some water,’” Wilson said.

Wilson shot two and made two to give the Vikings a 41-39 lead over archrival Vicksburg with 12.7 seconds left. The defense held on at the other end, and the two-point margin stood up as the Vikings beat the Gators for the fourth time in five meetings.

Shaun Walton and Chavis Smith led Warren Central (5-3) with 10 points apiece, and Kevin Virges scored eight.

Wilson only scored four points, but the last two were the biggest of the game. They capped a wild fourth quarter that featured 10 ties or lead changes.

“It was fun because we came out with the win. If they would’ve won it still would’ve been a fun game with us going back and forth,” Wilson said. “It was a defensive game, and I know my guys could play defense well. I just count on those guys to play defense.”

Kirk Parker scored 16 points for Vicksburg (6-2), which had a four-game winning streak snapped. He got the ball for the final shot after Wilson’s free throws, but couldn’t convert on a contested shot underneath the basket. The rebound went out of bounds as time expired.

“I should’ve gotten fouled. The refs didn’t call it. I should’ve made it on my own. It was just a tough game. I think we’ll get over it and come back harder,” Parker said. “You’ve got to keep moving forward. We’ve got another game to prepare for. You lose some and win some.”

Raheam Moore added seven points, and Joe Thomas and Dentarius Richardson six each for the Gators. Moore and Thomas scored all of their points in the second half to pick up the slack for Parker, who only scored three in the last two quarters.

Parker scored 13 of Vicksburg’s 15 points in the first half.

“They started doubling me up and didn’t let me get the ball,” Parker said.

Neither team ever led by more than six points. Vicksburg scored five in a row to take a 35-32 lead on a basket by Moore, but Walton drilled a 3-pointer to tie it with 3:54 left in the fourth quarter.

They kept trading baskets, ties and one- and two-point leads like that until Wilson finally put the Vikings ahead and the Gators no longer had time to mount a comeback.

Warren Central won its third road game of the season — it won one all of last year — and second close game this week. It beat Wingfield in overtime on Tuesday.

“This one was pretty good, being that the last two or three times we’ve come over here we haven’t played very well. The Gators are pretty good at home. So it’s pretty good. It’s still a process,” Warren Central coach Bruce Robinson said. “Those ones we can gut out are real good. It’s still about January and February, and we’re not there yet. Vicksburg played great defense and they made us play ugly because they’re a good team. So we’ve got some stuff we’ve got to work on. So this is a good win. This is a real good win.”