By Cody Thomason
The Vicksburg Post

Not much seemed to go right for Warren Central on Friday, and it suffered a surprising 61-43 loss to Greenville in a key Division 4-6A game.

The Vikings (17-5, 4-1 Division 4-6A) fell out of sole possession of first place in the division for the first time this season. They are tied with Greenville (16-7, 5-1) for the top spot with one division game left — Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at home against Provine.

It was a rough start for Warren Central on Friday, as it headed into the second quarter down 17-6, and was unable to get the deficit below 11 the rest of the game. The Vikings struggled on both sides of the ball, but coach Bruce Robinson felt that the problems started on the defensive side.

“Our defense is not what it used to be,” Robinson said. “We used to take charges, we used to help in the gaps. We’re not playing very tough right now.”

De’Arius Henyard led the Vikings with 13 points, and Chavis Smith added six. For Greenville, Anfernee Diggins scored 21 and Danny Washington had 12.

Robinson liked Henyard’s work on the offensive end, but wanted more from him, as well as the rest of the team, on the glass and on defense.

“You have to play defense,” Robinson said. “You can’t get rebounds and have folks knock them out of your hands. You have to be a little bit tougher than that. Yeah, (Henyard) did pretty well on the offensive end tonight, but it’s February, you have to play defense.”

With the division tournament right around the corner, the team will need to regroup quickly.

“As a group, as a team, we have to do a little soul searching,” Robinson said. “I think we’ve kind of lost our way a little bit, not mature enough to handle all of this pressure.”

Provine will also be playing the second half of a back-to-back on Saturday, and has to travel to Warren Central, which Robinson hopes will aid in the Vikings’ attempt to bounce back. The game has been rescheduled twice since its original date of Jan. 16.

“It’s going to be tough, we have to come out and play,” Robinson said.

(G) Greenville 57, Warren Central 53

For the second game in a row, the Warren Central Lady Vikes couldn’t hold on in the fourth quarter.
Warren Central missed five free throws that could’ve potentially put the game away in the final two minutes, and let an 11-point lead slip away in the second half. Greenville’s Jeanee Anderson hit a free throw with six seconds left to send it to overtime, and the Honey Bees went on to win by four.

WC (18-7, 4-2 Division 4-6A) only scored three points in overtime and lost its second consecutive division game. It will play another Saturday at 2 p.m., at home against Provine.

“I don’t think we executed,” Warren Central coach Jackie Martin-Glass said. “At times we should’ve played smarter. We didn’t shoot well, we had opportunities to extend the lead at the free throw line, we missed free throws, we had two wide open layups we missed. Four free throws right there at the end that could have actually put the game more in our control, and I tell my girls all the time you have to make big shots at the end.”

Warren Central shot well from the field, shooting 54 percent, but missed some important shots down the stretch.

They missed all six of their 3-point attempts and struggled from the line, shooting just 50 percent. Amber Gaston was a bright spot, connecting on seven of her 10 field goal attempts and nine of her 13 free throws to finish with 23 points. Aniya Sanders finished with nine points on 4-for-7 shooting. For Greenville, Anderson scored 21 points and Charkaju Warren had 16.

Greenville made its big run in the fourth quarter, outscoring WC 2 -15.

Coming off such a tough loss, getting the Lady Vikes ready to bounce back for Saturday’s game against Provine won’t be an easy task. The Lady Vikes are one game ahead of Clinton for the No. 1 seed in the division tournament.

“I’m going to try and get them as fired up as I can, when you lose big ones it drains you a little bit, and then not knowing how our energy level was going to be, I put our starters in the whole game,” Martin-Glass said.

Martin-Glass said she didn’t know how her team would respond, but hoped the loss would spur a good performance.

“Hopefully, when you lose a game, it makes you want to come out and play hard the next game when you realize how many mistakes you made that game,” Martin-Glass said.