Last week’s tournament in Mendenhall helped give both the Warren Central Lady Vikes and the Vicksburg Missy Gators some momentum going into the season’s second half. The teams have each won three of their last four games, and the winner of today’s game at Warren Central will get back to .500. Tip-off is at 1 p.m.

For Warren Central, a win would also keep it in first place in Division 3-6A. The Lady Vikes (8-9 overall) are 2-0 in division play after beating the Missy Gators (7-8, 0-2) on Dec. 10, and then winning at Clinton on Tuesday night.

Vicksburg, meanwhile, won all three of its games at Mendenhall and coach Barbara Hartzog feels her team has found its bearings.

“It helped get us a good foundation on how to win games,” Hartzog said. “Now, we have to go in and find a way to get a victory at Warren Central. They’re 2-0 in the division and we’re 0-2. I feel like we fell apart against them in the second half when we had a good lead. Since then, we’ve worked out some of those kinks.”

The key for the Missy Gators was to let freshman Ama Arkoful become the primary scoring option. Arkoful, a 5-foot-7 guard, scored at least 20 points in all three tournament games in Mendenhall.

“Ama accepted her role, but her teammates stepped up as well, especially against Mendenhall,” Hartzog said. “We were down 13 in that game, but Ama came on and the girls provided good support.”

Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Brown said her team still has work to do, despite its recent upswing.

                                                                                                    

If you go

Today, 1 p.m.

Vicksburg at

Warren Central

Admission: $5

                                                                                                  

“I still feel we’re playing below expectations,” Brown said. “We have to minimize our turnovers and play smarter. And while Vicksburg might have figured out that they need Ama to score, we need to figure out a way for Ama not to score.”

For the Vicksburg boys, the key to the rest of their season will be how well they can handle zone defenses.

“We have to find a way to beat a 2-3 zone,” Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson said. “When teams play us in a 2-3, it’s caused us all kinds of problems. It’s how Magee was able to beat us. We can’t get nothing inside as far as scoring and rebounding and that puts a lot of pressure on our guards. We’re trying to find a way to take some of that pressure off.”

Vicksburg (7-8, 1-1) salvaged a win in Mendenhall by beating the host Tigers in the tournament’s last game. That ended a four-game losing streak.

Warren Central (8-9, 1-1) has split its last four games. The Vikings have not beaten Vicksburg since 2006, a stretch of 14 straight games.

Last month, the Vikings used a zone defense to build a 10-point lead against the Gators at the half. Vicksburg used a more patient approach in the second half and came up with a 52-42 win to extend its streak in the crosstown series.