[12/11/02]When the weekly prep basketball rankings came out Tuesday, Vicksburg High coach Mike Coleman made sure his players were up to date.

Natchez, with a win over state-power Murrah already under its belt, came into VHS (7-4, 1-0 Division 4-5A) with an 8-0 record and the state’s No. 5 ranking.

Not any more.

Shalonda Williams scored a team-high 16 points, including 6-for-8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, as Vicksburg beat the Lady Waves, 56-55, to take an early lead in the race for the Division 4-5A championship.

“This was huge,” said Coleman, who knocked off his first ranked team since taking over the Missy Gators four seasons ago. “The rankings came out today and they were No. 5 and unbeaten and that proves to me that they are a good team.

“Except for about a five-minute spurt, we played really good basketball.”

Tiffany Hubbard added 14 points and 11 rebounds and Tricia Dart scored 13 to lead the Missy Gators. Crystal L. Brown led all scorers with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Quantrita Marsaw added 10 in the loss for Natchez (8-1, 0-1).

“That’s as unorganized as we have played,” said Natchez coach Mary Irving, who led her team to the division championship a season ago. “We turned the ball over more tonight than we have done all year.”

Natchez, which committed 29 turnovers, fought back from a nine-point deficit to take a 52-50 lead with 54 seconds left in the game, but VHS sophomore Jennifer Hunter, who had not played all game, nailed two free throws to tie the game at 52.

Then Natchez melted down. After falling behind 53-52, the Lady Bulldogs committed four turnovers in a row. The last two secured the win for Vicksburg as Charlette Taylor intercepted a pass, hit Dart in stride and she converted a layup for a 55-52 lead. Williams followed the final Natchez turnover with a free throw for the four-point lead.

Marsaw hit a 3-pointer with six seconds to play, but Vicksburg ran out the clock.

Vicksburg led from the start and used an 8-0 run in the final minute of the first half to take a 28-23 lead into the locker room.

“We felt good at halftime and I told them we had to put together 16 more minutes,” Coleman said. “They were a little excited at halftime, but that is too early to get excited.”

The Missy Gators extended the lead to 42-33 at the end of the third quarter, but committed seven turnovers in a row as Natchez clawed back in the game. A short jumper by Brown ended a 10-1 Natchez run and tied the game at 43.

“In a way, it was like a little panic,” said Arcola Scott, who was in charge of guarding the much-bigger Brown. “We wanted to win and knew what we needed to do.”

(B) VHS 64, Natchez 33

Jamaal Thomas added a little excitement to what was a ho-hum game Tuesday night.

With the Gators leading Natchez by 35 points late in the fourth quarter, Thomas took a steal, drove the length of the floor and slammed down a thunderous dunk. The amazing part was that he took off maybe three steps inside the 3-point arc and blew past several defenders on his way.

Thomas scored six points as the Gators (9-2, 1-0 Division 4-5A) slammed the Bulldogs to take the lead in the division.

Devin Jones led all scorers with 19 points and Sedrick Williams added 13 in the win.

Brian Williams paced Natchez, which lost all five starters from a season ago, with 16 points.