CLINTON — The Warren Central Lady Vikes picked the perfect time to have one of their best games of the season.

Cocoa Fultz had 19 points and nine rebounds, and the Lady Vikes routed Clinton 55-35 in the third-place game of the Division 4-6A tournament on Friday.

Warren Central (18-11) vanquished a team it had lost to twice in the regular season — and 14 of the last 16 times they’d played — and advanced to the Class 6A state tournament for the first time since 2012.

The Lady Vikes will go on the road to play Callaway in the first round of the state tournament Monday at 7 p.m.

“We’ve been wanting to beat this team. It goes all the way back to eighth grade. They were our rivals. We were tired of losing to them,” Fultz said. “It feels good to know we beat them because it’s a rivalry game, and we know we were better than what we were doing. So it feels good to have a good win like that.”

Warren Central entered Friday’s game having lost three straight games, and not having scored more than 28 points in any of them. It quickly, and definitively, turned things around.

After Clinton (14-15) scored the first five points of the game, Warren Central went on an 18-1 run to close the first quarter and never trailed again. It dominated in every phase, getting easy baskets off steals and offensive rebounds and never letting the Lady Arrows have a moment to break the momentum.

Warren Central had 19 steals as a team, 12 offensive rebounds and 32 total rebounds. Da’Sha McGloster finished with eight points and seven rebounds, T.T. Sims scored eight points, and Aniya Sanders had seven rebounds and five steals.

Four players had at least three steals apiece. Sophomore forward Amber Gaston blocked six shots.

“I told them if we play like that every time we take the court, it’s going to be hard to beat us. We had a lot of players that stepped up and played well in areas they usually struggle in,” Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass said. “I think it was just the notion of going home. That’s what I’ve been plugging in their heads all week. It’s do or die, and if you’re not motivated by that then it’s time to go home.”

Khyla Crosby led Clinton with 14 points, but her team was never in the game after its initial flurry. The Lady Arrows only scored 20 points through three quarters and trailed by as many as 25 late in the fourth.

“Even though we hit those first two shots, we weren’t playing real good defense like we’ve been playing. I could see that in practice yesterday. We were letting the second team split us and take it to the goal any time they wanted,” Clinton coach Mike Coleman said. “I’ve always been a big believer that you play how you practice, and that’s about how we practiced. But you’ve got to give Warren Central credit. They took advantage of us not being in the proper position on defense. They deserved the victory. They were the better team tonight.”

UP NEXT

Monday, 7 p.m.

Warren Central at Callaway

Class 6A girls state tournament