CLINTON — Time stood still, and so did the scoreboard.

For 10 long minutes Tuesday, Warren Central tried in vain to change the revolting “zero” staring down at it into a more palatable “two.” By the time the number nudged forward, the Vikings were in a 16-point hole that not even a remarkable late surge could pull them out of.

Domonic Davis scored 12 points, Donell Williams had 11, and Clinton survived long enough to beat Warren Central 45-41. The Arrows took a 16-point lead into the fourth quarter that got whittled down to four before pulling themselves together in the last two minutes.

Kourey Davis led WC (7-9, 0-2 Division 3-6A) with 15 points, nine rebounds and five steals.

“It’s tough,” WC coach Chareck Cable said. “It’s always a measuring stick for how hard the guys practice. We have to put a complete game together. We can play with anybody, we just have to put a complete game together.”

The source of WC’s huge deficit was easy to spot — it missed its first seven shots and didn’t score until Devin Johnson dropped in a layup with six minutes to go in the second quarter. The basket made it 16-2 and the Vikings spent the rest of the night playing catch-up.

“We had offensive rebounds, loose balls. We didn’t have that stuff in the first half. We had some stuff that put us in a big hole,” Cable said.

Clinton (13-4, 1-0) maintained a 13-to-18 point lead until going through a swoon of its own in the fourth quarter. After Kavonte Younger scored in the opening minute to give the Arrows a 43-25 lead, they went five minutes without a point and only made one shot the rest of the game.

An effective press by the Vikings forced nine turnovers in the fourth quarter, and they chopped the seemingly insurmountable 18-point deficit to four, 43-39, on a layup by Eric Howard with 3:09 to play.

That was as close as they got, though.

Davis hit a baseline floater a minute later to push the lead back to six, and WC missed several shots on its end. After Roshawn Smith’s layup made it 45-41 with 23 seconds left, the Arrows broke the press and ran the clock down to 5.1 seconds before Robert Younkins was fouled. Younkins missed a free throw, but the Vikings could only manage a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer.