BRANDON – Warren Central’s win over Hazlehurst Thursday was so easy, it was like stealing candy from a bunch of babies.

WC had 18 steals, most of them leading to easy layups, and had three players score more than 20 points apiece as it overwhelmed a young Hazlehurst team 84-56 at the Northwest Rankin Tournament.

Mario Luckett had 27 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and Jeremy Smith scored a career-high 23 points for the Vikings, who snapped a six-game losing streak. Shone Ester also scored 20 points for WC (6-10), and just missed a triple-double with eight steals and seven assists.

Warren Central will wrap up its three-day run at the tournament today at 2:45 p.m., when it plays Ponchatoula, La., in the fifth-place game.

&#8220It’s good to get a win. And we executed pretty good,” WC coach Jesse Johnson said. &#8220Hazlehurst put us on this losing streak, and it was nice to get them back a little.”

Indeed, Hazlehurst had started WC’s recent slide. But the team that beat the Vikings by six points in November hardly resembled the team that showed up Wednesday.

Hazlehurst (3-11), which only has one senior on the roster, was careless with the basketball and committed 28 turnovers in the game. That negated a solid 18-for-28 shooting effort by the Indians and 24 points from Antonio Harris.

&#8220I think it got away from us before we got off the bus,” Hazlehurst coach Willie Neal said. &#8220The mental attitude just wasn’t there.”

To be fair, a lot of the Indians’ mistakes were caused by defensive pressure, and the loss was the end result of a nearly flawless game by the Vikings. Smith scored six of WC’s first 10 points as the Vikings jumped to a 13-2 lead midway through the first quarter. They never trailed in the game, led by 24 points at halftime, and shot 62 percent from the floor while only committing 12 turnovers. Six of the turnovers came in the fourth quarter, when the outcome had long been decided, and Warren Central led by as many as 34 points in the final period.

&#8220We executed what we’ve been taught, that’s all. Nothing different,” Ester said. &#8220We’re playing smarter. Offensively, we’re as good as anybody. We’ve just got to play smarter.”

Another reason for the blowout was the play of Smith. Throughout the losing streak, WC had been struggling to find a third scoring option behind Luckett and Ester. The forward-guard tandem is averaging about 28 points per game between them, but the next-highest scorer averages just three points.

Smith doubled that less than four minutes into the game. He scored on a putback and two layups to spark the Vikings’ early run, and had a career-high 15 points in the first half. He finished with 23 points on 11-for-13 shooting, with both misses coming on 3-pointers. Casey Brown also helped out, scoring eight points for the second straight game.

&#8220I had to come out and play. We needed to win,” Smith said. &#8220I started getting into it after a couple of layups.”