Coming off Saturday’s embarrassing loss to archrival Warren Central, Vicksburg expected a sharper effort against Crystal Springs. The Missy Gators had one for about 12 minutes before reverting back to their turnover-prone play from Saturday.

Fortunately for coach Barbara Hartzog’s team, Crystal Springs was unable to capitalize on 31 Missy Gator turnovers. Vicksburg (4-6) overcame the miscues to beat the Lady Tigers, 42-24.

Hartzog, while glad for the win, knows her team must play better when they travel to Greenville-Weston Friday night. After that, a date with Brandon looms next Tuesday at the Ridgeland Classic.

“Again, we almost had as many turnovers as we did points,” Hartzog said. “It’s not like we can’t break a press. When we did, it was swish, swish. But then, we make all kind of other turnovers like not getting an inbounds in, or throwing passes right to the other team. That there is being young. We have to calm down and get some confidence. We have a tough trip up to Greenville-Weston and then we play Brandon. And they are going to run a full-court man press on us.”

Vicksburg junior guard Aleesha Smith said the Missy Gators lost focus after grabbing a 27-8 lead early in the second quarter.

“We got too confident and then we started making turnovers,” Smith said. “We’re still trying to get the chemistry back like we had it at the beginning of the season.”

Up 27-8, Hartzog had her second team backcourt in the game and the result was eight turnovers to finish the first half. Crystal Springs was only able to cut the spread down to 15 points by the break.

Starting point guard Ama Arkful was back to run the Missy Gators in the third quarter, but the turnovers kept coming. Vicksburg committed six in the first two minutes of the quarter.

Again, Crystal Springs could not take advantage. The Lady Tigers missed seven straight shots and the Missy Gators actually boosted the lead back to 19 after Arkoful hit a back-handed layup with 2:10 left in the quarter.

The Lady Tigers did score the next eight points to close to within 11 at 31-20 before VHS straightened up. Smith was key, making two good passes to break pressure that led to two easy baskets for Arkoful to push the lead back to 15.

Arkoful finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. Smith had 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Lexus Vaughn had nine rebounds while Kailen Young had seven boards.