When asked which opponent he preferred his team to face in today’s Class 6A championship game, Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson sidestepped the question neatly.

“We have no preference,” Robinson said. “We match up with both them well.”

But the Gators (27-3) will get the championship game that every high school basketball fan in the state has wanted to see, Vicksburg vs. Meridian, in the game for the Golden Ball.

Meridian won the first meeting, 61-53, behind 20 points and nine rebounds for Mississippi State signee Rodney Hood. Vicksburg star Mychal Ammons was benched for much of the first half by foul trouble and finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists. He scored two points in the first half — both of them coming in the first quarter.

Both lived up to their billing in the semifinals. Hood scored 27 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished six assists in a 72-43 blasting of Starkville. Ammons scored a game-high 28 points, grabbed eight boards and blocked three shots against Pascagoula. Of Ammons’ points, 20 of them came in the second half and in overtime.

If the Gators play the kind of offensive game they played against underdog Pascagoula, they will be in deep trouble against the state’s top team. Vicksburg shot 35 percent from the field and hit only 2-of-20 3-pointers against a pesky Pascagoula defense that kept open looks to a bare minimum.

While the battle of the state’s two best players, Hood and Ammons, gets top billing, the game might come down to the contributions of each team’s role players. Vicksburg, which has players filling the roles of 3-point marksman (Willie Gibbs), rebounder/post defenders (Josh Gaskin and Kienta Ross) and perimeter stopper/backup point guard (Rashard Gaines), will need more contributions like the one it got from Gaines.

Gaines poured in 11 big points, grabbed seven rebounds and added a block and a steal to help keep the Gators afloat when shots weren’t falling before Ammons dominant run to end the contest.

Robinson thought that his team didn’t take a lot of open looks and tried to force the ball to Ammons and Gibbs, the team’s two top scoring threats.

“I don’t think it was what they were doing to us,” Robinson said. “I thought we looked stunned at first. We made some bad passes and I guess we looked up at the big ceiling and it messed with us. Pascagoula wasn’t doing anything but doing what everyone else does. Play Mike (Ammons) tough. Play Willie Gibbs tough and making everyone else do the scoring. I thought the kids were looking to Mike and Willie Gibbs too much.”

The Wildcats (28-2) got good contributions from their role players, as Matthew Hurn scored 17 points and Nick Waters added 11 against Starkville.

Another key for the game will be the point guard matchup between Vicksburg senior Dominique Brown and Meridian senior Devin Cherry. Both struggled in the semifinals, Brown hitting only 2-of-12 shots with six turnovers to go along with three assists.