FLOWOOD — There was no bad or good for the Vicksburg Gators on Tuesday, only shades of gray.

The Gators let a close game get out of hand in the third quarter and lost their fourth in a row, 67-49 to New Hope. They led at halftime, however, and were competitive against a good team while playing with a short bench. The positives and negatives balanced out to a degree, coach Dellie C. Robinson said.

“We’re playing a lot of kids, and we’re playing a lot of great competition. We’ve played all of them tough in the first half, then we just ran out of gas because we don’t have enough big bodies to battle those big kids inside,” Robinson said.

Kenneth Murphy scored a game-high 17 points for Vicksburg (6-6), while Raheam Moore had 14 and Ke’Darrion Parson finished with nine. Vicksburg only had nine players dressed out, with several either hurt or missing the game because of family obligations.

One of those is junior forward Kirk Parker. He was averaging a double-double when he injured his elbow in November, and is expected to return some time in January. While the Gators are clearly treading water without him, Robinson said it’s encouraging to see the contributions of everyone else adding up.

“Being right there with these real good ballclubs, and you know you’re missing your best piece, it kind of makes you feel good,” Robinson said. “If we had Kirk and they were beating us like this, we wouldn’t have much to look forward to. But when we’ve got a kid averaging 15 points and 12 rebounds, and you’re going to put that back in the lineup, it can make a difference in a 12-point ballgame.”

Terryonte Thomas led New Hope (10-1) with 16 points, Willie Ousley scored 14, and Carlos Brooks had 13. Terrel Jennings and Kyree Fields scored 10 apiece.

Both teams wore gray uniforms. Vicksburg’s were a darker, smoky gray that it wore for the first time this season, while New Hope sported a lighter shade that is its normal home uniforms.

“A lot of people up in our area wear grays as home uniforms. We have a set of whites, but we don’t ever wear them,” said New Hope coach Drew McBrayer, who coached at St. Aloysius from 2005-07. “I didn’t see much of a difference out there. It didn’t bother anybody on the floor.”

Tuesday’s game at the Northwest Rankin Holiday Tournament followed the same script for Vicksburg as the day before in a loss to Brookhaven.

Moore scored 11 points and Murphy had 10 in the first half as the Gators took a 29-28 lead into halftime. After exchanging a couple of baskets early in the third quarter, the Gators went cold and had the game slip away from them.

Thomas scored five straight points for New Hope, Jennings converted a three-point play, and Fields drilled two free throws during a 12-0 run. Murphy’s 3-pointer with a minute left broke the run, but New Hope still took a 47-36 lead into the fourth quarter. Murphy’s trey was Vicksburg’s only basket in the last five minutes of the third quarter.

“I think we just ran out of gas,” Moore said. “We took away playing good in the first half, but we’ve just got to finish the game.”

Fields hit a 3-pointer and a short floater along the baseline to put New Hope ahead 54-36 a minute into the fourth quarter. Vicksburg came back to cut it to nine with 2 ½ minutes remaining, but couldn’t get any closer.

The Gators missed 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions, committed a turnover on the next one, and missed a layup to close it out. They did not score in the last 2:45 of the game.

“I thought we took two real bad shots coming down the stretch. We could have gotten it inside. But I told the kids to relax, and if they’re open, shoot it. They did that, and unfortunately we just didn’t make it,” Robinson said.

 

(G) Vicksburg 47,

Northwest Rankin 45

The Vicksburg Missy Gators held Northwest Rankin to nine points in the fourth quarter and rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to win in their final game of 2015.

Keiyana Gaskin led Vicksburg (8-6) with 17 points, nine rebounds and four steals, while Karry Callahan had 13 points, 15 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots.

While the Missy Gators’ stars played well, this win was made possible by the contributions of the role players. Maya Clay had eight rebounds and Jayda Thigpen scored six points. Micha Williams hit two big 3-pointers — a half-court shot at the first-half buzzer and a more conventional trey to give VHS the lead with 2:40 remaining in the game. Williams also drew two charging fouls.

Leslee Toole also held one of Northwest Rankin’s top players, JoJo Jolly, to one basket in the fourth quarter. Jolly finished with 12 points and Maya Jones scored 24 for the Lady Cougars (6-5).

“Our defense really stepped up, and that’s what won us this game,” Vicksburg coach Barbara Hartzog said.

Vicksburg snapped a three-game losing streak and will head into 2016 with some positive momentum. The Missy Gators’ next game is Jan. 8 at home against Ridgeland in the Division 4-5A opener.

“This is the way to close out the holidays,” Hartzog said. “We’ve got our first district game our first game back and we’re 8-6 exactly halfway through the season. We’ve got 14 to go and eight of them are district games, and the rest are against 6A schools. We’ve got to play tough games to get better.”