When asked what his team will need to do stop the surging Vicksburg Gators today, Warren Central coach Jesse Johnson had a simple answer.

“Pray,” he said.

The two teams enter today’s Division 4-6A contest on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Vikings are 2-14 and 0-2 in the division after Tuesday’s 56-42 loss at Clinton. Vicksburg enters 14-2 and cracked the Clarion-Ledger’s statewide poll at No. 5 after winning the Northwest Rankin Tournament last week. The Gators already own an 89-52 win over WC this season and have not lost to their archrivals since the 2005-06 season.

Gators coach Dellie C. Robinson, however, isn’t going to take Warren Central lightly. He saw some significant improvement out of the Vikings as he scouted the Clinton game Tuesday.

“They are a much tougher team with Jeremy Harper. He can shoot from long range and that gives them another good shooter to go with (Louis) Carson. We’re expecting a tough game Saturday,” Robinson said.

Johnson felt his team made some strides at last week’s Mendenhall Tournament. The Vikings went 1-2 but all three games came down to the end, including a 63-62 overtime loss to Crystal Springs. WC shot well for a half against Clinton and took a 28-23 lead into the locker room. The second half, though, was a different story. Clinton rallied by shooting 55 percent while holding the Vikings to five field goals.

“We couldn’t hit the rim. We had too many turnovers and I include airballs as turnovers,” Johnson said.

Vicksburg did not play Tuesday and will have had 10 days off since beating then-No. 3 Brandon 64-62 in the title game of the Northwest Rankin tournament. Robinson said his team needed the break.

“It was good for us because Kelsey (Howard) and Mychal (Ammons) are averaging 28 to 30 minutes a game, so they need that break,” Robinson said.

Howard was huge at Northwest, averaging 23 points in three wins.

Robinson was happy to keep rolling, but not as happy about the recognition it’s brought.

“I was kind of hoping we could stay under the radar, but it shows we’ve been successful and we’ll take it,” Robinson said.

The Gators, however, have a lot of company atop the Class 6A ranks this season.

Starkville is unbeaten at 16-0 and ranked No. 1. Wingfield is 17-0 and ranked second after winning the Jackson Public Schools Tournament. Biloxi, which won the Class 5A championship last year, is fourth.

“There’s no doubt, we have our work cut out for us if we want to win state,” Robinson said.

To that end, the Gators continue to work toward that goal.

“This week we’ve worked on our presses and did some work on some special plays for Kelsey and Mike,” Robinson said.

One of those plays worked like a charm as Ammons tipped in a lob pass for the winning basket as the horn sounded against Brandon.

All four of the girls teams in Division 4-6A have at least 10 wins, so every game is key. Vicksburg is 10-5 overall and 1-1 in the division. They handed former No. 2 Greenville-Weston its only loss in Greenville on Dec. 18. Warren Central is 11-4 but had a six-game winning streak snapped at Clinton on Tuesday.

“We’re coming off a loss and now we have another game with our rival, It won’t be hard to get ourselves up,” Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass said.

•

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com