Falcons get revenge on Vicksburg Gators

Wingfield took home the Coca-Cola Classic trophy after ripping the Vicksburg Gators 66-46 Saturday afternoon at the VHS Gym.

The Falcons (3-1), who lost to the Gators in the season opener, were a completely different team this time, hitting outside shots and confusing VHS on the defensive end.

&#8220When I saw them beat Forest Hill, I knew they were a different team than the one we played last week,” VHS coach Dellie C. Robinson said. &#8220Maybe we were still celebrating the football team’s win over Warren Central, because we definitely didn’t play well today.

&#8220We couldn’t get into our offense and we couldn’t get a rebound.”

Vicksburg’s Jonathan Phelps, who had a game-high 18 points, hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 5. Wingfield then reeled off the next 10 points to go up 15-5 and never trailed again.

The Falcons hit three 3-pointers in the opening quarter and added three more in the second to go up 36-25 at halftime.

VHS’offense fell apart in the third quarter as Wingfield went on an 18-5 spurt to lead 54-30. The Falcons led by as many as 27 before Phelps scored 10 in the final quarter to get the final count down to 20.

&#8220We’ve played really well the last two games,” said Wingfield coach Herman Sanders. &#8220The first time we played Vicksburg, we just had a lot of turnovers. This is still a pretty young team, but we got better pressure on the ball today.”

Kenneth Mullin led Wingfield with 15 points while Richard Harper and Jermaine Mallett had 10 each.

Vicksburg (3-1) got 11 from Brandon Harper and seven each from Tony Ammons and Fred Williams.

Forest Hill, who was upset by Wingfield on Thursday, defeated Natchez 70-57 to win the third-place game. Kevin Sims had 21 for the Rebels. Jeremy Houston led Natchez (0-2) with 18.

(B) WC 72, Port Gibson 58

The Vikings took home fourth place with a romp over Port Gibson in Saturday’s opening game at VHS.

WC used a 16-4 second quarter to take a 34-14 halftime lead and cruised from there.

Rashaan Walker had a game-high 21 to lead the Vikings (2-1). Jula Pugh chipped in 13 and Andre Thomas had 10. Karl Fleming led the Blue Waves with 14.

Turnovers plague VHS in championship loss

By Sean P. Murphy

Wingfield forced 32 Vicksburg High turnovers and led from the start in taking a 53-37 victory in the championship game of the Coca-Cola Classic.

The victory gave Wingfield (4-0) a Classic sweep as the boys defeated Vicksburg, also on Saturday.

The Lady Falcons harassed Vicksburg players for the entire game, getting in passing lines, contesting shots and controlling the rebounding.

&#8220We try to do a lot of that in practice, get in the passing lanes and try to create steals,” Wingfield coach Bobby Gates said. &#8220We try to cause chaos for the offense.”

Shayna Wilson and Loren Shoulders each scored 14 points to pace Wingfield. Rachel Jenkins scored a game-high 16 points for the Missy Gators.

Vicksburg turned the ball over 18 times in the first half and trailed 26-18. Wingfield extended the lead to 40-29 at the end of the third quarter before Vicksburg made a run.

The Missy Gators got the score down to 40-33 and with 6 minutes, 15 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, but the team went scoreless for more than four minutes and watched Wingfield increase the lead back to double digits.

(G) WC 49, Natchez 43

Warren Central captured third place in the five-team tournament with a win over Natchez.

ShaKayla Caples scored a team-high 14 points and Brittany Willis added 11 as the Lady Vikes improved to 2-1 on the season.

Warren Central’s defense limited Natchez to four points in the second quarter and five in the third.