Looking for a way to kill an afternoon? Trying to find something fun to do on Saturday afternoon? Want to help send someone to college?

Then head on out to Warren Central on Saturday for the Red Carpet Basketball Classic.

The annual daylong high school basketball extravaganza tips off at 10 a.m. and will feature our local teams taking on some top-flight competition. Porter’s Chapel Academy begins the day with a girls-boys doubleheader against Brookhaven Academy, and Warren Central finishes it by facing Starkville. In between, Vicksburg High’s girls’ team will play Forest Hill and the boys play Port Gibson.

Brookhaven Academy (11-2) is a favorite to win the MAIS Class AA boys championship. Vicksburg and Port Gibson’s boys’ teams will play for the first time since 2011.

The Warren Central vs. Starkville matchups both feature teams ranked in the top 11 in Mississippi according to Maxpreps.com. It’s a marquee matchup, and a chance for both Warren Central teams to make a statement on the state level.

All of the games are included on one $8 ticket, making it one of the biggest bargains in high school sports.

If that’s not enough, buying a ticket will help eight high school seniors pay for college. The Red Carpet Bowl committee awards two $500 scholarships to each of the county’s four high schools. It’s not much compared to the full cost of college these days, but is enough to buy a semester’s worth of books.

The Red Carpet Bowl’s fundraising efforts are largely split into three segments — the long-running football game, a golf tournament that was just started in 2017, and the basketball event. The football game helps keep everything running and the long-term role of the golf tournament is still being determined.

The Basketball Classic, meanwhile, is where the money for the scholarships comes from. It doesn’t make a lot of money for the committee, but its success or failure typically determines the number and amount of the scholarships awarded the following year.

With this lineup and the ice finally melted on the roads, Warren County’s basketball fans ought to have ample motivation to show up in force to cheer on their home teams. And if that doesn’t do it for you, consider it a good deed. Every ticket helps.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com

RED CARPET CLASSIC
Saturday, at Warren Central
Admission: $8
Girls
10 a.m. – Brookhaven Academy vs. Porter’s Chapel
1 p.m. – Forest Hill vs. Vicksburg
4 p.m. – Starkville vs. Warren Central
Boys
11:30 a.m. – Brookhaven Academy vs. Porter’s Chapel
2:30 p.m. – Port Gibson vs. Vicksburg
5:30 p.m. – Starkville vs. Warren Central