Everybody gets fired up for the Red Carpet Bowl in August.

It’s the start of football season. The start of a new year. There’s fireworks and flyovers, football and fun.

Its sibling, the Red Carpet Basketball Classic, on the other hand, is often the redheaded stepchild of the family.

It’s a long, long day of basketball — about nine hours this year, and as many as 12 in past years — that never seems to end if you have to stick it out the whole time. It’s in the middle of the season, on a Saturday morning after most of the teams have played on Friday night, and everyone is a little more groggy than geeked.

The Red Carpet Classic, however, serves a much greater purpose than a few basketball games. The money raised from it helps fund scholarships at Warren County’s four high schools, and the overall experience is a major event our community can be proud of.

The 2016 edition tips off at 10 a.m. Saturday at Warren Central. Porters Chapel Academy will play Discovery Christian School in a girls-boys doubleheader. Discovery Christian is a relatively new school based in Florence, and might be a chance for both PCA teams to break long losing streaks.

At 1 and 2:30 p.m., respectively, Vicksburg High’s girls and boys teams will play Northwest Rankin. This has been an up-and-down season for both the Gators and Missy Gators, but like the early games Saturday it might be a chance to get in the win column. The Missy Gators beat Northwest Rankin in December, and NWR’s boys team is just 4-12 this season.

Warren Central takes the court for the final set of games, with the girls playing Provine at 4 p.m. and the boys taking on O’Bannon at 5:30.

Both of WC’s opponents are struggling, but the home team might have the toughest assignment of all. Warren Central has to go on the road to face Greenville on Friday night in what figures to be a pair of physical division matchups. Coming back to play the next day will not be easy.

In fact, all of the teams involved have division games Friday and then the Red Carpet games Saturday. Maybe they can keep a coffee urn instead of water bottles on the bench. The games and the day will be fun, but it might take a little assistance to get through.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer for The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com

RED CARPET BASKETBALL CLASSIC

Saturday, at Warren Central

10 a.m. – Porters Chapel vs. Discovery Christian (Girls)

11:30 a.m. – Porters Chapel vs. Discovery Christian (Boys)

1 p.m. – Vicksburg vs. Northwest Rankin (Girls)

2:30 p.m. – Vicksburg vs. Northwest Rankin (Boys)

4 p.m. – Warren Central vs. Provine (Girls)

5:30 p.m. – Warren Central vs. O’Bannon (Boys)