Warren Central earns sweep of visiting Terry|Prep basketball

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 23, 2010

Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass couldn’t have asked for a better effort against Terry Friday night.

The Lady Vikes dominated the glass, shared the ball on offense, got a big performance out of captain Ricille Davis and put the clamps on the Lady Bulldogs to earn a 58-35 victory.

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The Lady Vikes (14-6, 1-2 in Division 4-6A) grabbed 35 rebounds and only committed seven turnovers against 15 assists.

Davis was the primary catalyst both on the scoresheet and on the glass, scoring 23 points and grabbling 11 boards.

“I’ve been telling our girls that they’ve got to take possession of every play, be it on offense or defense,” Martin-Glass said. “We’ve got to control the momentum of the game. I think all of the preaching has paid off because I’ve been on them all week and they really came out and performed tonight.”

Kiera Moore gave Martin-Glass a monster game off the bench with eight points, seven rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocks. DeDe Eatmon also had a big game with 13 points and five rebounds.

After the Lady Vikes dominated for much of the first half, the Lady Bulldogs put together a run after being down 28-17 at the break.

Cassie Berry swished a jumper and Kia Graham hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 6-0 run to start the second half and cut the WC advantage to seven.

But the Lady Vikes re-asserted themselves in short order midway through the third.

Davis went baseline and converted a layup and Sh’Qualla Neal flicked a perfect behind-the-back pass to DeDe Eatmon for a 3-pointer. Neal hit a runner in the lane to cap a 7-0 run that put WC out front to stay at 35-21.

The Lady Bulldogs never mounted a serious threat after that point.

The key was the feisty man defense played by the Lady Vikes, with a little of their standard 2-3 zone sprinkled in when matchups dictated.

“I thought defensively we played pretty well,” Martin-Glass said. “We’ve been trying to play man (defense) a lot and that’s all help.”

Berry led Terry with 12 points.

(B) WC 63, Terry 62

The Vikings finally earned a victory at the free-throw line.

Eric Howard converted 3-of-4 at the charity stripe in the final 24 seconds to lead WC past visiting Terry.

“It was time for us to win one,” WC coach Jesse Johnson said. “We had lost five or six that were close down the stretch and it all came down to just making free throws. That’s going to be a good win for us.”

Cory Davis scored 16 points to pace the Vikings (3-19). Jeremy Harper chipped in 13 and Eric Hall added 11.

Brice Riles paced Terry (9-10) with a game-high 24 points.

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Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com