JACKSON — The Warren Central Lady Vikes spent the better part of a minute trying to run the play they wanted, with no luck. Every time they set it up, Terry countered it with a quick defensive maneuver.

Eventually, point guard T.T. Sims glanced at the clock and realized she was out of time and options. She drove the baseline, took advantage of the space her defender was giving her, and put up a 15-foot jumper. The ball hit the rim, took one bounce straight up, and then fell cleanly through the net to give the Lady Vikes the win and Sims the memory of a lifetime.

Sims’ jumper gave Warren Central a hard fought 45-43 win over Terry on Thursday in the semifinals of the Jackson Public Schools Tournament.

“It’s exciting, but it was a tough game. I just wanted to get the win,” Sims said.

Sims finished with 12 points, and Amber Gaston led Warren Central with 16 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots. Quadeja Crockett led Terry with 10 points.

The Lady Vikes advanced to the championship game later Thursday night, where they were to defend their tournament title against either Murrah or Hazlehurst.

Prior to winning the JPS title last season, the Lady Vikes had not done it since 1984. Now, they have the opportunity to do it two years in a row.

“We came here as the defending champions, so we wanted to at least come back and defend it,” Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass said.

The Lady Vikes (12-3) won their second game in a row after losing two straight, and avenged an overtime loss to Terry on Dec. 16. This one was not any easier, even if the outcome was different.

The Lady Vikes battled foul trouble throughout the second half and struggled with their shooting. They only made one field goal in the first 4 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter and fell behind 41-36 — the biggest margin of the game for either team — with four minutes to go.

WC was just 15-for-43 shooting from the field for the game. Terry, meanwhile, went 21-for-28 at the foul line to account for nearly half of its points.

“They match up well with us. But we missed a lot of layups and they made a lot of free throws,” Martin-Glass said. “My game plan is always to look inside first, but I think they overdid it. When the other team knows what you’re doing they can sit back. Nobody was trying to attack. Everybody was trying to lob it in, and they played the play.”

WC broke out of its funk on a basket by Gaston, and took the lead with a three-point play by Aniya Sanders with 2:04 remaining. That capped a 7-0 run that gave the Lady Vikes a 43-41 lead.

After Terry tied it, the Lady Vikes had the ball with 56 seconds left. They weren’t necessarily holding for the last shot, but it turned out that way.Terry defended Gaston inside to deny the first option, and then deftly avoided a couple of screens she tried to set up to free Sims along the perimeter.

Finally, with the clock ticking toward zero, Sims dribbled the ball toward the right corner. She saw the clock when it was under five seconds to go, took a few steps in, and then cut loose with a jumper that was as skillful as it was desperate.

After it fell, she calmly pumped her fist and was mobbed by her teammates on the bench in a wild celebration of her first game-winning buzzer beater.

“It was one play, but we just couldn’t get it right. Everybody was just everywhere. I knew I had to take the last shot when there was 20 seconds left,” Sims said. “We were trying to drive to the goal to get me a layup, but she sagged back. When I turned around there was, like, two seconds and I just put it up. I thought it was going to come off the rim.”

UP NEXT
• Thursday, 6:30 p.m., at Forest Hill High School
• Warren Central vs. Murrah or Hazlehurst
• JPS Tournament championship