JACKSON — On a night when they could’ve easily been sleepwalking, the Warren Central Lady Vikes were awake, alert, and running full speed toward the Pepsi/Jackson Public Schools Tournament girls’ championship.

Cocoa Fultz scored 13 of her game-high 15 points in the second half and added 12 rebounds and five assists, and Amber Gaston had 13 points and 10 blocked shots as the Lady Vikes routed Jim Hill 53-37 in the championship game at Forest Hill High School.

After losing its tournament opener to Callaway on Monday afternoon, Warren Central (13-4) won four consecutive elimination games over two days to emerge from the losers’ bracket as the champion of the 11-team field.

Among WC’s victims on its road to the title was defending Class 6A champion Murrah (11-4) and a Jim Hill team that entered the championship game with a 13-2 record.

The Lady Vikes beat Murrah 41-36 in their semifinal matchup Wednesday morning.

“Surprisingly, we’re pretty warm,” said Gaston, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player. “But we kept our stamina up. It was all a mind thing, and I think we were mentally tough throughout this tournament.”

In all four of its tournament wins, Warren Central held its opponents under 40 points. The last was Jim Hill, which didn’t score a point for the first 5 minutes and 40 seconds of the game and didn’t make a field goal until Nakeisha Holcomb scored on a fast break layup with 5:15 remaining in the second quarter.

Warren Central scored the first nine points of the game and never trailed. After Jim Hill scored the first basket of the second half to get within eight points, 19-11, the Lady Vikes answered with a 10-0 run and their lead never again dipped back into single digits.

Despite playing on weary legs, the Lady Vikes were the more active team throughout the game. They dove for loose balls and grabbed 26 defensive rebounds, often holding Jim Hill to one bad shot on its offensive possessions.

Holcomb was Jim Hill’s only double-figure scorer, with 11 points.

“When I found out we could hit the losers’ bracket and come back, I called a few girls that were hanging around and told them we still had a shot. Their countenance went up, and from that point on I told them they had to listen and execute and get better,” Warren Central coach Jackie Glass said. “If you can get them to buy into that, you can come out of it. The next four games we played, we shut those opponents down with defense and we were able to extend our lead just by being patient and running our offense.”

The Lady Vikes also got a balanced effort up and down the lineup. In addition to Fultz and Gaston, T.T. Sims finished with 12 points. Dee Dee Caldwell had five points and eight rebounds, and Aniya Sanders had six points and nine rebounds.

Sims also scored 11 points — with three 3-pointers in the second half — in the win over Murrah.

The heart of WC’s schedule is still ahead. It’ll face Northwest Rankin and Vicksburg next week before playing the Division 4-6A opener Jan. 10 at home against Clinton. Glass, however, said this week’s performance will help a lot as the Lady Vikes chase a division championship, and then hopefully a state title as well.

“I hope it helps us turn a corner and build our confidence without making us overconfident,” Glass said. “You don’t want to win and knock a couple of teams off, and then get an air about yourself that ‘I have arrived.’ You have to keep playing to that strength of what you did and be humble about it, knowing if we work hard and play together and listen to our coach then we have a very good chance of being successful this season.”