[2/4/04]JACKSON On a night in which her teammates struggled to find their shooting touch, Carla Latham came off the bench to carry them to victory.

Latham scored 13 of her game-high 17 points in the second half and Warren Central beat Forest Hill 55-41 on Tuesday night to give the Lady Vikes the Division 6-5A championship and the top-seed in the division tournament, which begins on Feb. 17 at WC.

“Carla is good enough to start for us,” WC coach Donny Fuller said. “We don’t really have a starting five, we’ve got a starting six. Carla just gives us such a lift coming off the bench, and she’s accepted that role for us.”

The Lady Vikes (15-7, 4-1 Division 6-5A) will play Natchez in the first round of the tournament, while Vicksburg will meet up with Forest Hill.

The win marks the third time Warren Central has defeated Forest Hill (11-11, 3-3) this season.

“We put ourselves in position where we’re the No. 1 seed, but we’ve still got to go out there and win a tournament in order to win the district,” Fuller said.

The Lady Rebels ran into problems with their two top players Tameka Scott and Tanika Martin battling through foul trouble.

“It totally affected the gameplan because they basically are our gameplan,” said Forest Hill coach Tommy Groves, whose team turned over the ball 30 times. “With both of them out of the game and in foul trouble, it’s just hard for us to play.”

The pair still combined for 24 points and 17 rebounds, but when they weren’t on the floor, Forest Hill had trouble scoring.

“When we take it at them and they get fouls, we keep doing it,” Latham said. “And that’s what won the ballgame.”

(B) WC 68, Forest Hill 67

Marcus Harvey, Brian Phelps and Seddrick Williams scored 15 points each for Warren Central, which beat the Rebels to keep their division championship hopes alive.

“We executed our offense real well, and we went to our strong suit, which is driving the ball to the glass,” WC coach Jesse Johnson said. “When we drive it to the goal, I’ve told them a number of times, we can compete with anybody.”

Forest Hill’s Rashaad Crisler’s sharp-shooting led to 10 first-half points, but Williams held him to two points in the second half.

“We just shadowed him with Seddrick because we knew that he could shoot it from all over the floor from 26, 27 feet,” Johnson said. “Seddrick did a good job shutting him down in the second half.”

The win puts the Vikings (9-13, 3-2 Division 6-5A) in contention with the Rebels (12-10, 4-2) for the top seed in the division tournament. If Warren Central can defeat Vicksburg on Saturday, it will tie Forest Hill with four division wins apiece.

The Vikings will host Vicksburg in the final division game of the year on Saturday at 1 p.m.