Kendrick Washington spent the Thanksgiving holiday working on his long-range jumper. It paid off Tuesday when the 6-foot, 4-inch center hit a 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left to hand Hinds AHS a 73-70 win over Vicksburg Tuesday night.

&#8220I’ve been practicing it,” Washington said. &#8220When my guard said ‘spread,’ I went out to the corner and just made the shot.”

It was one of only three 3-pointers the War Dawgs (8-1) made in the game. One of the others came when JaCorey Wright banked in a trey at the end of the first quarter.

As for Vicksburg (4-3), turnovers were again the big problem. There were 27 in all, but none bigger than two in the final 42 seconds.

With the game tied at 70, Vicksburg gained possession when Hinds’ Timothy Myles was called for a carry with 1 minute, 12 seconds left. The Gators worked the clock down to 43 seconds before coach Dellie C. Robinson called timeout.

On the ensuing inbound, Delmon Robinson fumbled a pass out of bounds for turnover No. 26.

Hinds then ran the clock down before starting its play with eight seconds left. The ball was swung to the corner where Washington knocked down his 3-pointer. It was only the second time since Wright’s buzzer-beater in the first that Hinds had held the lead.

Turnover No. 27 came when Hinds intercepted the Gators’ final inbound pass.

&#8220The play was designed to go to Kendrick in the post, but when we swung it, he had drifted over to the corner. At least he’s been working on that shot,” Hinds coach Keith Williams said. &#8220We struggled shooting the ball tonight. We usually have KJ (Washington) to get us going. And that makes No. 3 (Wright) pretty tough to deal with.”

Wright led all scorers with 20 points, while Stewart had 19 and Washington finished with 17. The trio helped Hinds battle back from a 14-point deficit (36-22) in the second quarter.

Turnovers all season, the Vicksburg High coach said, have been the team’s downfall.

&#8220That’s what’s killing us. We did everything pretty well for three quarters, except the turnovers,” Coach Robinson said. &#8220We have got to do a better job of protecting the basketball. Most of them were just mental mistakes, like walking with the ball when you’re wide open.”

Vicksburg led 41-31 at the half after making 7 of 10 shots in the third quarter, including five treys. They were 8-of-15 in the third quarter but nine turnovers helped Hinds whittle the lead down to two before a 3-pointer by Delmon Robinson made it 60-55.

(G) Hinds AHS 58, VHS 50.

Jerrica Thomas fired in 25 points to lead the Lady War Dawgs past the Missy Gators (5-2).

Thomas scored 16 of her points in the second half as Hinds (6-2) rallied from a 22-19 halftime deficit.

&#8220We just rely on our defense to create turnovers,” Hinds coach Bruce Baker said. &#8220I think we’ve improved our outside shooting since last year.”

Sondra Moncure added 15 for Hinds. Tiffany Williams led VHS with 18 points and Kamiko Martin chipped in 13.