With 10 days to stew on its last game, a buzzer-beater loss to Clinton, Warren Central’s girls’ basketball team seemed ready to tear into someone when they finally got back on the court Friday night.

The Greenville Honeybees were the unfortunate souls who happened to get trapped in the Lady Vikes’ path of destruction.

Dominique Caldwell and Amber Gaston both had double-doubles, and Warren Central raced out to an 18-point lead at halftime. They kept up the energy and momentum in the second half as they destroyed Greenville 68-29.

It was Warren Central’s third win in four meetings with Greenville (13-7, 1-2 Division 4-6A), and its largest in the series since an 18-point victory in 2009.

“Us being defeated by Clinton, it made us more anxious and wanting just to play. Having 10 days off, we came in here every day and were just working and working. We can’t slack off in this district or take this easy,” said Caldwell, who had 19 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. Nine of her rebounds were offensive rebounds. “It always feels good when the team is connecting and we have that chemistry to come out here and defeat other teams.”

Gaston finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks for Warren Central (15-5, 1-1), which shot 57.1 percent (24-for-42) for the game, and was 13-for-21 at the foul line.

Cocoa Fultz and Chae White had seven points apiece for WC and T.T. Sims scored six. Jeanee Anderson led Greenville with 13 points.

Warren Central led 30-12 at halftime and not only was never challenged in the second half, it never even seemed to consider giving Greenville enough daylight to make a run and get back in the game.

The Lady Vikes kept flying to loose balls and crashing the boards deep into the fourth quarter, and when seldom-used backup Alexa Jeffers made a 3-pointer in the closing seconds the starters on the bench and the crowd erupted as if she’d just hit a game-winner.

In one sequence that defined the game, point guard Te’Asia Sims was trapped near midcourt in the final minute of the third quarter and tried to throw the ball off of a Greenville player to get it out of bounds. She missed her opponent and the ball bounced to Aniyah Sanders, who pivoted and threw to a wide-open White under the basket for an easy layup that made it 46-24.

“Our energy was up and the enthusiasm was there,” Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass said. “I need to revisit our press. It’s not working like I wanted it to. There’s some things we got a chance to work, that we can revisit and see if we can tune it up when it’s time for the district tournament.”

The huge margin of victory allowed Martin-Glass to use her entire bench in the first half of a strenuous set of back-to-back games. They’ll turn around and face Forest Hill (2-10) today at 2 p.m. in the Red Carpet Basketball Classic at Vicksburg High School.

Caldwell said playing two games in less than 24 hours is kind of nice after only getting on the court twice in the past three weeks.

“It’s good so you can still have that feeling when you play tomorrow when we play against Forest Hill. It’s good to have that ongoing, instead of resting and playing, resting and playing, it’s good to play back-to-back,” Caldwell said.

(B) Warren Central 60, Greenville 50

Warren Central and Greenville traded runs and played evenly for 30 ½ minutes Friday night, but it was WC that dominated the last 90 seconds and came away with a big division win.

The Vikings finished the game on a 9-2 run and hit 8 of 10 free throws in the last 1:35 to snap a seven-game losing streak to the Hornets. Greenville missed five of its last six shots, turned it over once, and was called for a crucial technical foul that sparked the Vikings’ game-ending run.

“Mainly, it’s a district win. I thought we played very well as a team, and our bench gave us the support we needed to win the game. So I’m happy with the win,” Warren Central coach Bruce Robinson said. “That makes us 1-1 in the district and gets us out of fourth place. It takes us out of a little slump. Winning takes care of a lot of things. But, still, we’ve got to build on this.”

DeAries Henyard led Warren Central (8-8, 1-1 Division 4-6A) with 24 points. Raleigh Floyd and Jacques Jones scored 10 each, and Shaun Walton had 11. The Vikings won for the second time in their last six games.

Haze Brown led Greenville with 15 points, with 12 coming on 3-pointers. He hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to keep the Hornets (8-12, 0-3) in it. His last was with about two minutes to go and cut a six-point WC lead to 51-48.

After that, the Hornets melted down.

WC’s Jalen Allen was fouled going for a defensive rebound, and Greenville was assessed a technical foul on top of that. Allen made three of the four free throws and the Vikings scored on the ensuing possession to make it 56-48.

Greenville’s shooting stayed cold down the stretch, and the Vikings pulled away at the foul line. They were 14-for-18 from the line in the fourth quarter and 18-for-24 in the game. Seven of WC’s last nine points came on free throws.

“I think when one guy gets to making them it’s kind of infectious. Just like when you miss them. Free throw shooting is rhythm anyway, and I think we got in a rhythm. We got comfortable. We knew we had to make our free throws to take care of that ballgame,” Robinson said.

Warren Central will play Jim Hill in the Red Carpet Basketball Classic Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Vicksburg High School.