JACKSON — A long row of empty chairs stood on one end of Warren Central’s bench. A quick head count at the other end revealed the coaches outnumbered the players. The people who used to fill those seats are no longer with the team in a midseason shakeup that has left only seven on the roster.

Far from being a team in disarray, however, the Lady Vikes appear to be doing OK at the moment. They won two games this week to reach the semifinals of the Pepsi/JPS Holiday Tournament for the third year in a row and are heading into 2019 with some optimism for the long-term future of the program.

“We had some issues with some players that did not buy in to what we were selling. We felt at this time it was best to make some changes. We’ll go with the youth movement, and I think in the long run it’s going to benefit us,” Warren Central coach Darein Hilliard said.

Lanier beat the Lady Vikes 55-43 in the semifinals of the JPS Tournament Friday morning at Jackson State.

Keshuna Luckett led Lanier with 17 points, Kelsey Neal added 12 and Jada Henderson scored 10. For Warren Central, Aniya Sanders finished with 22 points and Zykerri Segrest scored eight.

Sanders averaged 25.3 points in three games in the tournament.

Warren Central won the JPS Tournament in 2016 and reached the championship game last season, but was not expected to get very far this time around with its thin roster. Instead, it beat Wingfield and Provine on consecutive days before running out of gas against Lanier.

Lanier used a 12-0 run in the second quarter to gain some separation and took a 34-16 lead into halftime. It never got closer than 12 points in the second half, but Lanier also did not lead by more than 21 as the teams more or less played to a stalemate. Warren Central finished the game on a 9-2 run and outscored Lanier 27-21 in the second half.

“Nobody thought we were going to be here today. We shocked a whole lot of people around this area. I talked to one of the college coaches and he said you were getting blown out, but it didn’t look like you were getting blown out,” Hilliard said. “We’re going to get back to work. We took some steps forward. Today we took a step backward. But we got a win against a district opponent (Provine), and that should give us some confidence as we head into district play. I think they’re very confident.”

The Lady Vikes will certainly have some challenges moving forward. The Region 4-6A schedule begins Jan. 4 against Greenville and they’ll have to work around the limitations that a small roster brings both in games and in practice.

Segrest fouled out in the fourth quarter against Lanier. Sanders and Tamiya Dunn both finished with four fouls, meaning the Lady Vikes were perilously close to having to play the final stretch with only four players on the floor.

An illness or injury could also be devastating. In the immediate aftermath of the roster turnover, Hilliard had to cancel a game last weekend at the Ridgeland Shootout because only four players were available.

“It limits you,” Hilliard said. “But we should be a little more efficient because you get more time to spend with that group of kids. You can do this with this group and that with that group on the floor. If we can play like we did last night (against Provine) and don’t have to play a three games in three days marathon I think we’ll be fine.”

Hilliard seemed to be focusing on the positives rather than the challenges ahead. Two of the seven players on the roster — Segrest and Alaila Bracey — are freshmen, and both contributed during the JPS run. Bracey scored eight points in the win over Provine, and Segrest had eight against Lanier.

Help is also on the way. Hilliard said he plans to add several more freshmen to the roster after the Little Six Conference tournament in January. There also are no seniors on the active roster. Throw in a shot of confidence that they can still play at a high level, and the Lady Vikes left Jackson in a much better place than they came.

“We practice with the ninth-graders. I’ve got three of them I’m anticipating bringing up and they’ll give us somebody to put in and give the others a breather,” Hilliard said. “I think we’ll be fine. We’ll have 11 after the ninth grade gets through with the Little Six tournament.”