Vicksburg High’s basketball teams spent a month preparing for the season.

Now, after only two weeks, they’re taking a break.

For a VHS basketball schedule, click here.

Because of the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s reduction of the number of games a team can play, as well as a scheduled loaded with division games, Vicksburg has a two-week layoff between games. VHS played four games in the first two weeks of the season, but will not play again until it hosts Ridgeland on Dec. 2.

“We had to drop all of those games. And the games we could drop were all those in this stretch. Everything else is division games,” VHS girls coach Barbara Hartzog said.

The Missy Gators head into their hiatus with mixed emotions about their first four games. Vicksburg is 2-2, with a pair of losses to crosstown rival Warren Central, as well as a win over a strong Class 5A team from Natchez.

Vicksburg trailed by as many as 25 points in a 79-69 loss to Warren Central on Saturday, but Hartzog was pleased with a strong second-half effort. The Missy Gators scored 52 points and shot 70 percent after halftime, while coming up with nearly a dozen steals. Not only was it a marked improvement from the first half, when they only scored 17 points, but also from a 76-54 loss to WC the previous week in the championship game of the Vicksburg-Warren Classic.

“We won two good, close games. The two losses were to Warren Central, but we improved from last week to this week,” Hartzog said.

Vicksburg’s boys’ team also has mixed emotions about taking a break. On the one hand, they’ll be able to have sophomore forward Mychal Ammons back for their next game. Ammons missed the last two games with an ankle injury.

On the other hand, they might lose the momentum they were building up heading into division play. Vicksburg has won three of its first four games, including Saturday’s 67-53 win over Warren Central.

“Hopefully everybody stays healthy,” senior guard Maurice Williams said. “We’ve just got to start from the basics and work on the things we need to work on.”

Gators coach Dellie C. Robinson said the next two weeks of practice would include some scrimmages to keep the team game-ready, as well as plenty of running to keep them in shape.

“We’re going to do a lot of scrimmaging and full-court pressure, so hopefully that’ll keep us in shape,” Robinson said. “I’ll just stay positive with it. It’ll give us time to work on some things. No question about it, we want to play. Unfortunately they took those games away.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com