When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Locked in a physical confrontation with visiting Northwest Rankin, the Lady Vikes showed they were able to get going in a 71-63 victory.

“I told our kids that we have to adjust to the style of play,” Warren Central coach Donny Fuller said. “It  was very, very physical. They talk about no blood, no foul, but we had a couple bleeding and there was no foul called.”

The Lady Cougars’ mission was simple: get a body on the Lady Vikes’ two catalysts, Sha’Kayla Caples and Karnina Bunch and rough up the Lady Vikes on the boards. Early on, it worked to perfection.

WC (6-0) couldn’t make its usual big burst as Northwest kept within striking distance at 16-12 after one quarter thanks to strong work on the offensive glass.

“You’ve got to give Northwest credit,” Fuller said. “They brought some kids were good at using their bodies down in the paint. It really concerned me that we gave up far too many offensive rebounds because we’ve been talking a lot about that lately.”

In the second quarter, the Lady Cougars went to work at point-blank range. Putbacks by Kimberly Hobson and LaShunda Perkins and a short jumper by Deondrea Simpson composed a 6-0 run that knotted the contest at 18 early in the second quarter.

But from there, Caples and Bunch took over. Bunch warded off the unwhistled contact in the paint and converted a couple of big layups. Dequanna Kilbert found Caples in the blocks for an easy layup and the Lady Vikes extended to a 28-21 advantage.

Thanks to the burst, WC owned a 36-27 lead going into the locker room.

After the break, the Lady Vikes managed to keep the Lady Cougars at arm’s length and even added to their advantage. The closest Northwest could manage in the third was seven, as WC had a response to every challenge.

Jimeriam Jackson hit a big jumper to cut the deficit to seven at 42-35, but then Bunch drilled her first of two clutch 3-pointers in the quarter.

Jackson rebounded a miss and converted the putback, but Bunch drilled her second 3 to ward off the last serious Northwest charge. The Lady Cougars would get no closer than eight the rest of the way.

Caples scored 29 points to pace the Lady Vikes, while Bunch added 21. Ricille Davis added eight points.

Taylor Beverly led Northwest (5-2) with 18 points, while Jasmine Jones contributed 12.

The Lady Vikes return to action tonight at Ridgeland at 6 p.m.

“I told the kids that Thanksgiving will be a whole lot better at 7-0,” Fuller said.

 Fuller was forced to cancel the tournament he was going to put on at WC, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 4-5. The Lady Vikes were to play archrival Vicksburg in the tourney and there was talk of moving the game to the tournament date, but the game will remain scheduled for Jan. 10.

Northwest Rankin boys beat WC, 72-56

Todd Nelson scored most of his 22 points in the first half and the Cougars (5-2) took advantage of 15 first-half WC turnovers. The Vikings (1-5) only committed three in the second half, but with Northwest leading 39-23 at the half, it would be a margin the Vikings could not overcome.

“We’ve got to do a much better job executing,” WC coach Jessie Johnson said. “We turned the ball over far too much. I told them that if we miss that many layups again, we’ll never beat anyone. We made a lot of poor decisions. I thought our younger players did a much better job making decisions than our upperclassmen.”

Martez Carroll led WC with 16 points and eight rebounds. Cory Davis added 15 points for WC.

*

Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.