James Hall of Port Gibson slams in two of his points in the second quarter. (The Vicksburg Post/PAT SHANNAHAN)

Leroy Ward scored a team-high 18 points and James Hall scored 11 as Port Gibson (6-7) upset Warren Central, 45-42, Tuesday night.

The win was the third straight for Port Gibson, while the Vikings (6-6) dropped their second in a row.

“We’re on a little roll now and it feels great,” Windom said. “We are jelling at the right time and our guys are really starting to play good.”

Hall’s 15-foot jump shot with 18.7 seconds left in the game gave the visitors a 3-point lead, but WC had two chances at the win.

Kevin Coker missed a 3-pointer, but the ball went out of bounds off of a Port Gibson player. With 3.7 seconds left, WC planned another play to get Coker a trey for the tie.

Carlton Bradford got the inbounds pass and, with Coker guarded, missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“Carlton is very capable of shooting the shot and I would not mind him taking it,” WC coach John Duett said. “I’d rather just have the open shot.”

The loss put a damper on two standout individual efforts for the Vikings, led by Clifford Walker’s game-high 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field. Justin Green scored just six points, but grabbed eight rebounds and had eight blocks.

The Vikings’ inability to convert easy shots and poor free-throw shooting were the cause for the loss, Duett said.

“We lost this ballgame in the first half,” Duett said. “We missed six or eight easy shots and were 2-of-7 from the free throw line. We were up one point at halftime and should have been up by nine, or double digits.”

Walker’s steal and layup with one second left in the first half gave WC a 26-25 lead.

After several second-half lead changes, WC went up 42-40 on a Bradford layup, but Ward came right back for a 3-point play to give the Blue Waves the lead for good.

“My guys fought hard tonight,” Windom said.

“When the refs said they were going to let us play 5A basketball, it got our guys going. Our guys play physical and they wanted to play physical tonight.”

(G) WC 82, P. Gibson 39

Warren Central coach Donny Fuller said the first half of Tuesday’s thrashing of Port Gibson was one of the best halves ever played in their gym.

The Lady Vikes (11-2) scored 35 second-quarter points and held a 50-15 lead at halftime en route to the easy win.

Wanda Calvin led five Lady Vikes in double figures with 14 points and four steals. JaQuita Benard had 13 points, 10 rebounds and three steals, Lia Green netted 11 and grabbed seven rebounds and Debraka Smith scored 11, including three 3-pointers.

Megan Draper came off the bench to score a career-high 11 points.

“With a minute to go (Draper’s) out there with her hand up because she’s tired,” Fuller said with a chuckle.

“Dadgum, she’s been on me for two months about wanting to play more and I finally put her in the game and what does she do? She wants out.”

Twelve of the 13 Lady Vikes who dressed out scored and a suffocating defense forced 36 Port Gibson turnovers 24 in the first half.

Reandrea Jackson scored a team-high 18 points and Catronda Thornton netted 15 before fouling out in the third quarter for Port Gibson (5-8).