The Vicksburg High gym was filled to legal capacity to watch the Missy Gators duel rival Warren Central on Saturday.

Despite 10 missed free throws in the fourth quarter and a handful of missed layups to start, the Missy Gators were able to come away with a 44-40 victory. Vicksburg’s Micha Williams evened the score at 40 with a 3-pointer on the wing with 3:10 left in the game and finished with eight points and three steals.

Pleasure King had the hot hand from behind the arc, scoring six of her 10 points from outside. At times, Warren Central tried to get King off her game by making her put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket.

“It was very tough,” King said. “The defense helped us out a lot. Working hard in practice, you know working over and over in practice with coach disciplining us more and more every day … we’ll go out here and play defense like we’re supposed to.”

King also had four rebounds, two steals and an assist and said she felt good about her performance. The Missy Gators’ defense was responsible for 12 steals and 11 blocks — nine by senior forward Karry Callahan.

Heading into the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 29 and WC went on a 5-0 run as Te’Asia Sims found Amber Gaston in the paint and T.T. Sims hit a 3-pointer.

When the Lady Vikes took the lead, coach Jackie Martin-Glass wanted to slow the ball down to spread the court and pull Vicksburg out of its zone defense.

“We had quicker guards who could get to the goal and maybe create more fouls and more easy opportunities, but we didn’t get a chance to,” Martin-Glass said.

Warren Central did a good job of keeping Callahan off the glass and putting a body on her to take away her patented spin move in the paint. Callahan was still able to grab 14 rebounds — five off her season average — and score nine points.

Although the team was able to contain Callahan, Martin-Glass again wasn’t pleased with her team’s performance and felt as if they played as an underdog.

“There were some other areas that we got beat on,” Martin-Glass said. “Allowing them to shoot the 3-point shot and we didn’t cover that.”

The Lady Vikes also had issues moving the ball against Vicksburg’s zone defense, not turning offensive rebounds into points and giving Vicksburg 38 total rebounds.

“Not just Callahan, but some of the other players had an opportunity to get rebounds and put-backs. I thought my girls didn’t play aggressive and didn’t get loose balls and everything fell their way,” Martin-Glass said. “When you allow a team to get two or three second chances, somewhere down the road it’s going to hurt you.”