Warren Central’s girls’ basketball team spent the first five games of the season living on the edge. On Tuesday, it finally slipped off.

Jim Hill’s Lakala Thornton converted a three-point play for the lead with 15 seconds left, and Warren Central turned the ball over on its final possession as it lost 46-43.

It was the first loss of the season for the Lady Vikes (5-1), but followed a familiar pattern. In each game they’ve struggled to score — they’ve yet to score more than 54 points in a game — but did other things well enough to win. On Tuesday, that was not the case.

“We didn’t execute, had too many turnovers and missed opportunities. Our mistakes caught up with us,” Warren Central coach Jackie Glass said. “Other teams didn’t capitalize, but this one did.”

T.T. Sims led Warren Central with 10 points and Cocoa Fultz scored eight. Amber Gaston had seven points and nine rebounds, and Aniya Sanders had seven points and six rebounds.

The Lady Vikes will continue a road-heavy schedule Saturday with a game at Starkville. Eleven of their 13 games before New Year’s are on the road.

(B) Jim Hill 51, Warren Central 50
Warren Central blew two small leads, which trumped Jim Hill’s wastage of a bigger one.

The Vikings overcame a 12-point deficit in the third quarter only to lose by a point when Jim Hill’s Keelen Martin hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining. WC led by one at halftime and by one in the final seconds, but couldn’t make either advantage stick.

Jalen Allen missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have given WC (3-2) the win.
Chavis Smith led WC with 14 points, and Kevin Virges added 12. They scored 15 of their combined 26 points in the fourth quarter.

Allen finished with eight points.

Martin led Jim Hill (4-2) with 16 points and Kortland Jordan scored 10.

The Tigers went 12-for-25 from the free throw line in the game, while Warren Central was 12-for-18. Warren Central, however, only got to the line four times in the second half.