On Thursday night at Warren Central, the Lady Vikes found a way to finish on the second day of the Vicksburg Warren Tournament.

The Viking boys did not.

The Lady Vikes switched to a 2-3 zone and Ricille Davis was the primary beneficiary, as she went off for 22 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks to lead WC to a 60-51 victory over Natchez.

“Ricille is one of our big-time players,”  WC coach Jackie Martin-Glass said. “We decided to change up our defense to preserve her. We had been playing man, but she gets in foul trouble early playing man, so I think going to a zone helped her.”

After a nip-and-tuck first quarter, when jumpers by Kiera Moore and Davis pushed the Lady Vikes out to a 15-12 lead, WC took command in the second quarter.

Audrianna Ratliff drilled a big 3-pointer off the bench and DeDe Eatmon swished another as the Lady Vikes put the clamps on Natchez and outscored them 16-6 in the second quarter to go up 29-18 at the break.

The second half would belong to Natchez (0-2). Anastasia Hutchins scored 17 of her game-high 26 points in the final two stanzas and a jumper by Jacquera Williams cut the deficit to 54-51 with just over  three minutes remaining. But Natchez would not draw any closer as the Lady Vikes closed out the contest with a 6-0 run.

“It was a good win,” Martin-Glass said. “We had a good lead, they got a run going, but we responded. If you lose a lead, you can’t crack under pressure. It’s like I told our girls, we cracked, but we didn’t break. You’ve got to mend it back together.”

Ratliff tallied 11 points off the bench, while Eatmon and Moore added eight apiece.

(B) Natchez 75, WC 63

The Vikings (1-1) wasted a 20-point first-quarter lead and were outscored 23-8 in the fourth quarter by Natchez.

WC came out blazing in the first quarter, as Jeremy Harper and Eric Hall combined for seven 3-pointers as the Vikings blasted out to a 25-5 lead after one.

But from there, the Vikings were outscored 67-38 the rest of the way.

“It was just a pitiful effort on our part,” WC coach Jesse Johnson said. “We let the pressure dictate what we were supposed to do rather than running our sets. We just fell apart.”

Natchez finished the contest on a 14-2 run after tying the game with 3:25 remaining on a trifecta by Brandon Holden, who finished with 23 points.

The game was briefly stopped with just under a minute remaining as a fight broke out in the stands and Natchez shooting free throws. No arrests were made and the combatants were ejected from the premises.

Kelli Puckett added 18 points, Jeremy McMorris had 16 and Jonathan Griffin contributed 15 for Natchez.

Harper, who missed much of the second half after picking up his fourth foul midway through the third quarter, paced the Vikings with 23 points. Hall added 21.

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Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com