RIDGELAND — Vicksburg has had its struggles on the road this season. Tuesday, on the final day of the Ridgeland Classic, the Gators got a shot at playing a solid Class 6A team on a neutral court.

The result was a loss and another learning experience for the young team that regularly plays eight sophomores.

Brandon (8-6) used its size and depth to hand the Gators a 62-52 loss. Vicksburg, which lost in the Class 6A championship game last year, goes into the Christmas break at 6-6. The Gators are 4-0 at home, 0-5 on the road and 2-1 on neutral courts this season.

Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson said his team must learn the lessons opponents like Brandon can teach.

“We couldn’t do nothing on offense in the first half,” Robinson said. “Brandon doubled our guards and that’s our strong point. If you can force them into turnovers, you have a good chance to beat us. Our spacing was just bad in the first half. We did a better job with it in the second half, but then we got killed on the boards. Brandon did a good job with their plan.”

Through one half, Vicksburg made just five shots and had 12 turnovers. Brandon used its trapping pressure to run out to a 30-15 halftime lead.

The Gators cut down their turnovers to just three in the second half and started to knock down some shots. They made 15 of 28 in the second half, including five 3-pointers. But each time they got the lead down to 11 or 12 points, the Bulldogs would get an easy score against Vicksburg’s press.

“We tried two or three different ones, but none of them worked,” Robinson said.

Vicksburg sophomore guard Edward Davis said the team has some work to do going into next week’s holiday tournament at Mendenhall.

“We weren’t coming up to the ball when they doubled us,” Davis said. “We’ll work on that.”

Brandon was led by Lance Carter with 17 points. Mississippi State football commit Fletcher Adams had 12 points while Jeremy Jones added 11 points.

Romeo Carter paced Vicksburg with 12 points and four assists. Davis has 11 points, five rebounds and four assists. DeAngelo Richardson had 11 points.