JACKSON — With Warren Central trailing by five points and less than two minutes to go, T.T. Sims dribbled along the perimeter and then sprinted around a pick set by teammate Amber Gaston.

It was a basic play that the Lady Vikes have probably run hundreds of times this season. This time, however, Sims either cut a little too sharply or Gaston was a few inches out of position, the two collided and the ball wound up in the hands of a Callaway player.

It really didn’t matter who was at fault, just that it was both the beginning of the end and a play that symbolized the team’s night.

Every time the Lady Vikes crawled out of a hole, they fell into another. They struggled for traction all night and never quite found it as their season came to a frustrating end with a 53-44 loss to Callaway in the first round of the MHSAA Class 6A girls basketball tournament.

“We went on a run. We came back. But turnovers, making bad decisions, rushing. If we would have just taken our time and executed, we probably would have came out on top,” Gaston said. “It all started from the beginning. If you play hard at the beginning, then when you get to the end you have that lead. If you take care of business in the beginning, then you’ll be there at the end. So it’s just a matter of us growing up, maturing and making better decisions.”

Warren Central (18-12) had 17 steals as a team, but committed 24 turnovers and was just 11-of-22 from the foul line. It wiped out an eight-point deficit in the first half only to fall behind by 12 midway through the fourth quarter as Callaway went on a 12-0 run. There was a five-minute stretch of the third quarter where WC did not score.

The Lady Vikes rallied again to cut that margin to 49-44 with just under two minutes to play, and had the ball with a chance to make it a one-possession game. The collision between Sims and Gaston led to a turnover and they never recovered.

In the last 1:45, the Lady Vikes committed two turnovers, missed four free throws and didn’t score again. They also let Callaway dribble nearly 40 seconds off the clock and failed to grab the rebound after Mary Boyd missed a free throw, allowing the Chargers to burn even more clock.

“I think we just made some bad decisions,” Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass said. “We had them where we wanted. They had 10 fouls early in the fourth quarter, and we wouldn’t attack the basket. We’d just pass and pass the ball. We really played young. We didn’t execute well. We had them backed into a corner and we let them out.”

Twila Hill led Callaway (20-9) with 23 points and Tiara Robins scored 10. The Chargers advanced to the second round to play two-time defending Class 6A champion Horn Lake on Friday night.

Sims finished with 10 points and her sister Te’Asia had seven steals for Warren Central. Cocoa Fultz had 13 points — nine of them in the second half — and Gaston had six points and five rebounds. All of those players will be back next season. There are no seniors and only one junior on the roster.

For the next nine months, however, they’ll have to stew over a missed opportunity to earn the program’s first state tournament victory since 2007.

“If we keep working hard on basketball, focusing on basketball to get better, if that’s what you want to do, you want to push through it and keep going,” Gaston said. “With everybody coming back we’re going to be ready.”