After winning four straight on the road, playing at home proved difficult for the Vicksburg Missy Gators.

Callaway got a game-high 32 points from Alisa Ross to hand Vicksburg just its second loss this season, 68-64 on Friday night.

Both of the Missy Gators’ losses have come at home against Jackson Public School teams. Vicksburg avenged its only other loss, to Forest Hill, on Tuesday night in Jackson.

Missy Gators coach Barbara Hartzog felt her team played flat and that led to a poor effort on the boards.

“We didn’t rebound. We didn’t do things that was winning games for us. We didn’t play like we needed to play. We have to rebound the ball,” Hartzog said.

Vicksburg senior guard Alexus Stirgus agreed.

“We had won four in a row, but tonight we didn’t rebound,” Stirgus said.

While a lack of rebounding hurt the Missy Gators in the first half, it was turnovers and missed shots that allowed Callaway to turn a two-point game into an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Lady Chargers hit five of their first six shots to open the quarter while the Missy Gators went four-plus minutes without a made field goal.

Up two, Callaway got a pair of turnovers and baskets from Nijea Dixon to take a 56-50 lead. Two baskets by Ross and one from Jammie Hudson eased the lead to 64-53 before Donyeah Mayfield made a layup with 3:18 left.

Stirgus had two free throws and a 3-pointer in the final minute to account for the final four-point margin. She finished with 17 points to lead Vicksburg. Donyeah Mayfield had 16 points and 12 rebounds. Antoinette Mayfield had 12 points and eight boards.

Hudson chipped in 16 points for Callaway.

Vicksburg led 18-16 after one quarter, but Ross scored nine of her 32 points in the second to give Callaway a 37-32 lead at the half. Vicksburg took its only lead of the second half at 40-39 after a Stirgus layup following a deep pass from Alexis Hall, who had six assists.

(B) VHS 85, Jim Hill 46

On a night Vicksburg honored former player and Jim Hill coach Fred Harris, who died earlier this year, the Gators cruised to an easy home win.

The Gators (9-1) forced 15 first half turnovers and turned the Tiger miscues into easy points. Kelsey Howard had three breakaway dunks to key the onslaught as the Gators built a 45-16 halftime lead.

“We had been on the road for four straight games, so it was good to be back at home. We really showed up tonight,” VHS coach Dellie C. Robinson said. “We did a tremendous job with our pressure. We were concerned with No. 12 (Marquis Bailey) and No. 32 (Reshad Bickham) but we did an excellent job on those two.”

Bailey did not score and Bickham had only four points.

Howard finished with 24 points to lead the Gators. Chris Miller had 13 points and eight rebounds. Mychal Ammons had 12 points while Dominique Brown had 12 points and seven assists.

Vicksburg made 35 of 65 shots from the field and held Jim Hill to just 17 field goals.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com