VHS girls, WC boys rule county roost|[11/12/06]
Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 12, 2006
Vicksburg stymies, foul-plagued Lady Vikes, 63-53.
For a while, it seemed as if Warren Central’s foul total was keeping pace with its point total on Saturday. When the fouls started winning, the Lady Vikes knew they were in trouble.
Vicksburg High took advantage of a heap of early foul trouble for WC to open a 21-point lead in the first half, then held Warren Central at bay in the second half to claim a 63-53 win in the girls championship game of the Vicksburg Warren Classic.
“I’m proud of them. I think now they realize what they’re capable of,” Vicksburg coach Barbara Hartzog said. “But that’s just one win. We’ve got a whole season ahead of us.”
Three WC players – starters Sha’Kayla Caples and Kaci Harris, and reserve center Brittany Erves – fouled out, and three others finished the game with three fouls. Vicksburg (3-0) went 25-for-43 from the foul line, and hit 56.7 percent of its shots from the field.
Warren Central (2-1) was a respectable 15-for-20 from the line, but shot a subpar 39.1 percent from the floor and committed 30 turnovers.
“There were a lot of fouls called on both sides,” Hartzog said. “When you get in foul trouble early, you see what your bench is made of.”
Tiffany Williams led Vicksburg with 17 points, Kamiko Martin scored 15 and Taylor Ammons – who played most of the second half with four fouls – had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Brittany Willis led WC with 14 points and Shantta Taylor had nine points and nine rebounds. Caples, the reigning Vicksburg Post Player of the Year, finished with just seven points and three rebounds.
Vicksburg’s hustle and aggressive defense put WC behind the 8-ball immediately. Willis picked up two fouls in the first minute of the game and Caples had her third by the opening minute of the second quarter.
With two of the Lady Vikes’ top scorers on the bench, the Missy Gators took advantage. Martin and Williams each hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Vicksburg to a 22-8 lead at the end of the period. A 9-2 run early in the second quarter pushed the lead to 31-10 with just over five minutes to play, and the Missy Gators took a 36-20 lead into halftime.
“At the very beginning,” WC coach Donny Fuller said when asked when he knew it might not be the Lady Vikes’ day. “They came down, hit some big shots and jumped on us early.”
WC started the second half with a flourish, getting several steals with the press and five points from Caples in an 8-0 run that cut it to 36-28 a little over a minute into the third quarter. As soon as Fuller told his team they were back in it, however, they fell back out.
Caples got her fourth foul moments later and went back to the bench. She returned in the fourth quarter, but fouled out with 5:25 to play. Vicksburg led 52-37 at the time and cruised home with a 10-point victory.
“We just outhustled them and worked hard,” said Williams, who also had four steals. “We went into the game with nothing to lose. They’re ranked, so that put a lot of pressure on them.”
(G) Forest Hill 66, P. Gibson 51.
Katrina Wilson scored 15 points and Regena Grigsby added 12 for Port Gibson (1-3), but Forest Hill jumped out to a 12-point halftime lead and held off the Lady Waves in the girls’ third-place game of the Vicksburg Warren Classic.
Courtney Mabrera led Forest Hill with 16 points, Sharica Ward scored 13.
By Jeff Byrd