NATCHEZ The way Devin Jones and Roy Williams shot the basketball Friday night, it made the sweltering Natchez High gym feel almost cool.

The Vicksburg High seniors each scored 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting in the Gators’ 71-51 Division 4-5A championship victory, assuring Vicksburg a home game on Tuesday night against Columbus.

“Those two seniors stepped it up big time for us tonight,” Vicksburg coach Dellie Robinson said. “We knew that if we wanted to win a district championship, we had to step it up.”

It was a spirited second-half effort that propelled Vicksburg, as the Gators erased a three-point halftime deficit to score 49 points in the second half.

“We were real frustrated at halftime because we were down and we felt like we could beat them real big,” Williams said. “Coach Robinson said to calm down, play our game and attack the press. We came out in the second half attacking.”

Vicksburg (25-7) outscored its crosstown rival 22-11 in the third quarter and held a 44-37 lead at the end of the third.

“We got away from what we were doing and that’s the bottom line,” said WC coach Preston Wilson, whose team travels to Starkville on Tuesday night. “We tried to do too much one-on-one and got away from what we normally do. They deserved to win and we didn’t.”

Like in Tuesday’s WC win over Clinton, a technical foul late in the game changed the perspective. Trailing 53-44 with 5:40 left in the game, WC’s Chi Chi Ezekwe, who was held to just nine points, went in for a slam dunk, hung on the rim and was whistled for a technical foul. Vicksburg’s Sedrick Williams hit both free throws for an 11-point Vicksburg lead.

From there, the Gators outscored WC 16-5 over the remainder of the game to cruise to the 20-point win.

“I thought they were a little frustrated,” Robinson said. “I thought he tried to dunk it a little too hard and after that, we settled in and took care of the basketball and won the ballgame.”

Warren Central’s Ronnie Jones scored a team-high 16 points, but was held to only five in the second half. Dewayne Washington, who scored 34 in the Vikings’ win over Clinton, scored just eight points.

In the first half, Jones provided most of the Gators’ offense as it seemed reminiscent of the struggles against fourth-seeded Natchez in the tournament opener. Jones scored 13 of the team’s 22 points in the first half. Vicksburg scored only 38 in the Natchez win.

“They had been talking noise about how they were going to double-team me every possession and trap me every time they could,” Jones said. “I used that as motivation to do it by myself.”

While Jones torched the nets in the first half, the second half belonged to Williams. He scored 15 points and only missed one shot in the second half.

“I told Roy that he was going to have to step up tonight,” Jones said. “He told me in the second half that he was ready to go and when one of my teammates tells me that, I trust him.”

Jamaal Thomas put the finishing touches on the game in the final seconds with a dunk that gave VHS its biggest lead of the game, 71-49.

The Gators, who last played host to a satellite game three years ago, will host a Columbus team that eliminated VHS from the state playoffs two years ago.

The Vikings, meanwhile, will travel to Starkville, led by one of the best players in the state in senior Travis Outlaw. Game times have yet to be determined.