FLOWOOD — For a moment Monday, it looked as if the Vicksburg Gators might be on the brink of a collapse.

It was a very, very brief moment.

Looking every bit like a team capable of making another deep playoff run, the Gators kept their composure after watching a 15-point lead dwindle down to three early in the second half. They kept plugging away on offense, ratcheted up the pressure on defense, and waltzed to a 68-44 victory over Terry in the Northwest Rankin Holiday Tournament.

The Gators outscored Terry 33-11 over the last 12 minutes of the game.

“We tried to get out and run more,” Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson said. “I felt we didn’t run as much as we needed to. We’ve got to push the ball down the floor and get easy opportunities. They were playing pretty good defense, so we had to get out and run a little more.”

K.J. Murphy scored 15 points to lead the Gators, Khris Walker had 14 and Kirk Parker scored nine. Vicksburg (11-3) won all three of its games in the tournament, and will take a five-game overall winning streak into next week’s Division 4-5A opener at defending Class 5A champion Callaway.

“We got exactly what we wanted to get us game-ready,” Robinson said. “Our next game is Callaway, so the Clinton game got us prepared for that. We know what we’re up against, so hopefully it’ll help us out.”

K.J. Taylor and Malik Henry led Terry (7-7) with 12 points apiece. The Bulldogs fell behind by 15 points midway through the second quarter, but got back within 10 by halftime and then three on a 3-pointer by Taylor a minute into the third quarter.

It stayed a single-possession game for another three minutes, until Vicksburg stomped on the gas and sprinted away.

Using an aggressive defense that generated a number of steals and transitition baskets, as well as a patient offense that worked the ball into Parker and Walker in the post, the Gators finished the third quarter on a 13-3 run to get their lead back to double digits.

Vicksburg held Terry without a point for nearly 10 minutes, until Monta Davis dropped in a layup with 2:22 left in the game. By then the Gators led 62-38.

“Any time we can press, we can get out and run. Certainly in that third quarter we were able to press a little bit and they turned it over a little bit,” Robinson said.