With Kourey Davis back from football and Tristan Lowrey back from a three-week ankle injury, Warren Central was expected to have its offense at full strength.

Davis did okay with his mid-range game, but the rest of the Vikings struggled from the perimeter and there wasn’t enough offense to beat Murrah Tuesday night.

The visiting Mustangs broke away from a tight game through three quarters to beat the Vikings 45-38. The loss drops Warren Central to 4-4.

First-year Warren Central coach Bruce Robinson said his team’s defense was a bright spot, but they have to have their young guards like Mario Doyle score in order to beat teams like Murrah.

“From what I’ve seen in the past, Warren Central has had a lot of games like this,” Robinson said. “We can take the positive that we held them to 45 points and that was pretty good defense. But we couldn’t make anything. Mario didn’t make his first shot until the end of the game.”

Doyle, the team’s second-leading scorer, hit a driving teardrop shot came with 9.7 seconds left for his only points.

Davis had a solid night with 19 points and five rebounds. His free-throw line jumper gave Warren Central its last lead at 26-25 midway through the third quarter. Murrah lead by one when 6-foot-10 center Malik Hines rattled a putback dunk to give the Mustangs a 31-28 lead after three quarters.

A 3-pointer by Mike Williams kept WC within two, at 33-31, but the Mustangs went on a 10-0 run to take command.

Josh Carroll had 17 points to lead Murrah (6-3) while Hines finished with 12.

Davis hit eight of WC’s 15 baskets out of 48 attempts. No other Viking scored more than five points. Lowrey, a 6-foot-7 sophomore center, came off the bench in his first action since twisting his ankle. He had three blocked shots and two rebounds.