Although Vicksburg came away with a 54-43 win against Germantown, coach Dellie Robinson thought his team could’ve finished the game a lot stronger than they did.

The Mavericks were able to cut a 16-point lead down to seven in the fourth quarter due to the offensive prowess of Matthew Biernat and Michael Fountain. Beirnat and Fountain combined for 12 of the Mavericks’ 18 fourth quarter points and outscored the Gators by six.

“We talked about guarding [Biernat] and then we forgot about him. I thought that was the difference in them coming back,” Robinson said. “We knew we were supposed to shut him down, but some kind of way we lost him. We played well but we just didn’t finish the game well.”

Biernat finished the game with 12 points all off 3-point attempts.

The Gators got off to a quick start and held a 9-1 lead at one point in the first before ending the quarter 15-8. By halftime, they were up 13 points from a strong first half performance where Kenneth Murphy scored 11 points and Dentarius English added anther six.

Murphy would finish the night with a team-high 17 points, followed by Raheam Moore being a point shy at 16. Moore got hot in the second half going 3-of-4 from the free throw line and scored another 10 points in the paint.

“I’m real pleased with Raheam. I tell you I hope he continues to get better as the year goes along. He’s filling some big shoes for Kirk Parker,” Robinson said. “If Raheam can continue improving and get better and we can get Kirk back, that will make us a real strong team down low and we can be trouble.”

Robinson said if the Gators eliminated their four turnovers down the stretch, – including three travels from Joe Thomas – took smarter shots or would’ve been more patient with the ball; he would’ve been more pleased with the effort of the team.

“We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we did Saturday,” Robinson said. “Certainly we had some wide open looks that we could’ve made that we didn’t make.”

 

[G] Vicksburg 49, Germantown 38

Similar to the boys’ team, the Missy Gators came away with an okay win against the Lady Mavericks.

They didn’t play with the same intensity as they did Saturday, which is something they need to work on bringing every game.

“We’ve gotten better and we’ve improved, it’s just that we have to bring the same aspect from one game to another,” said Keiyana Gaskin, who finished the game with four points, six rebounds and an assist. “We’ll play up to our potential one game and then play down to somebody else game the next.”

As a team, Gaskin felt they drove to the basket well, finished their shots and found the open player. On the defensive side of the ball the Missy Gators came away with seven steals and four blocks on the night.

The Missy Gators held the Lady Mavericks to three single-digit scoring quarters and just one field goal in the third, and grabbed 40 total rebounds.

Karry Callahan earned a double double with 15 points and 17 rebounds and Micha Williams added another 10 points for the night, with six of her points coming off 3-pointers.