[11/16/03]Vicksburg High overcame a sloppy second half and a late charge by Port Gibson on Saturday to win for the third time in four games this season, 50-43.

Sedrick Williams had a game-high 21 points and five steals for Vicksburg (3-1), which nearly wasted a pair of double-digit leads in the second half before hanging on for the victory.

Ryan Hedrick led Port Gibson with 10 points, and Tobias Shank had nine. Fred Thomas added 10 points for Vicksburg.

“We played well for a minute in the first half, then went back to our old mode of turning the ball over,” VHS coach Dellie Robinson said. “That’s one of our biggest weaknesses. We don’t really have the ball-handling to be successful over the course of the year.

“Word is going to get out about that, and it’s something we’re really going to have to work on this week.”

The Gators used a 5-0 spurt in the final minute of the second quarter to take a 26-14 lead at halftime, but it didn’t last long.

Port Gibson went to a press defense at the start of the third quarter and forced the Gators into four turnovers in the first 1 minute, 16 seconds of the period. The Blue Wave also improved their shooting from the first half, when they had been 6-for-20 from the field, and whittled the deficit to 33-32 by the end of the quarter.

“We knew their guards were a little shaky handling the basketball, so we went to a man-to-man, full-court press the whole game after every made basket,” Port Gibson coach Kim Windom said.

Port Gibson never took the lead, however, and Vicksburg went on a 12-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to seize control again.

“When they cut it to one, I thought our kids showed a lot of heart. They could have easily folded up the tents, but they didn’t. They showed some character that I didn’t think they had,” Robinson said. “I thought we picked up our intensity and played a lot harder on defense.”

Just when it seemed the Gators could breathe easily, Port Gibson put together one final charge.

Hedrick sank a pair of free throws, and Jordan Shorter and Shank each hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 48-43 with 25.4 seconds remaining.

Shorter missed a 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left, and Williams hit a pair of free throws to ice the game.

(B) Provine 93, WC 58

Warren Central led the defending Class 4A champions after one quarter, then fell victim to the Rams’ onslaught.

Charlie White led four Provine players in double figures with 18 points, Derrick Thomas had 14, and Jarvis Williams and Willicent Seymour each had 16.

Anothony Lewis led WC with 17 points, while Brian Phelps added 16.

WC led 20-16 after one quarter, but Provine hit four 3-pointers in the second period two each by Thomas and Derrick Smith and took a 44-30 lead into halftime. The Rams then outscored the Vikings 29-15 in the third quarter to put the game away.