For Warren Central, there really is no place like home.

In its seventh home court win, Warren Central came away with its first district victory after dropping one to Clinton on Jan. 12.

“In this district, there’s so much parity that you have to win your home games. It gives us a little bit of confidence in what we can do,” Warren Central coach Bruce Robinson said.

The Vikings (10-11, 1-1 Region 4 6A) scored 22 points in the third quarter to put some distance between them and the Mustangs (16-7, 1-2).

Before then, the game was close being tied at 24 with 5 minutes left in the second quarter and Murrah embarked on a 10-6 run in the final 4 minutes of the first quarter.

“It was 28-24 going into the half. When I looked up again we were getting ready to go into double digits. They couldn’t score. We missed some shots but they just couldn’t score,” Robinson said.

Jaquan Woods scored a game-high 20 points and jammed in a dunk in the final minute of the game to seal the already wrapped up victory for the Vikings. Woods was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.

Shaun Walton came in a point shy of Woods with 19 points and Chavis Smith put up another 14.

Having three double-digit scores gave the Vikings offense an extra push to close out the game.

“They can’t key in on one player and I thought that was tremendous,” Robinson said. “It helps a lot.”

Robinson wanted his team to push the ball and see if they could score easily buckets.

“We wanted to see if they were willing to run with us, that was the philosophy. We have trouble shooting in the half court so we want to get that ball out and run with it,” Robinson said. “Defensively, we wanted to pressure them and once we got late in the ball game, we wanted to make sure they would shoot that ball from down side.”

 

(G) Murrah 41, WC 39

The Warren Central Lady Vikes fell to Murrah in overtime 41-39 Tuesday night.

Jamaica Almons scored a game-high 15 points for the Lady Mustangs connecting on 3-of-4 free-throw attempts.

Martin-Glass told her team they will build upon the loss and move on.

“It’s pretty disappointing. I felt like we had control of the game most of the game and had the lead all the way up until the fourth quarter. We just made some errors that I thought we shouldn’t have made.”

The Lady Vikes (15-7, 0-2 Region 4 6A) held Murrah (19-2, 2-0) to just 14 points in the first half and led by six heading into the break.

“We were able to get out to a 10 point lead and we kind of made some mistakes and allowed them to get back in it,” Martin-Glass said. “We have to play them again at their home in district play. We have to grow from it and see what we can do later.”

Cocoa Fultz scored eight of her team-high 10 points in the first half.

DD Caldwell added nine, TT followed with seven and Amber Gaston rounded off the scoring with six.

Gaston scored the Lady Vikes’ lone field goal in the extra period of play.

Warren Central had four consecutive possessions that resulted in turnovers during the second half.

“We were committing turnovers back to back,” Martin-Glass said. “You can’t go down the floor four times in a row, turn the ball over and get nothing but a foul and a shot at the basket.”

Murrah outscored Warren Central 23-17 in the second half to force overtime.

With the second game dropped in division play, Martin-Glass has mixed feelings about the team’s standing.

“I feel like right now, all the other teams are evenly matched. I think Murrah only beat Greenville by a few points, Clinton only beat us by a few points, by the time we get to the district tournament everybody will know everybody and the best teams would come out,” Martin-Glass said.

 

(G) Neshoba Central 48, VHS 31

Vicksburg dropped another division game on the road to Neshoba Central behind a 13-point effort from Keiyana Gaskin.

Gaskin was the only Missy Gator (10-11, 1-3 Region 4 5A) to score in double figures. Karry Callahan was held to single digits for the second straight game putting up seven in the loss.

After outscoring Neshoba Central (19-2, 3-1) 11-10 in the first quarter, the Missy Gators gave up 12 points in the second for a 22-17 deficit at halftime. Vicksburg scored only 14 points in the second half and Neshoba Central’s 15-point third quarter put the game out of reach.