For three quarters, Vicksburg’s Tiffany Williams and Port Gibson’s Tonya Grear had quite an outside shootout battle going on.

Then Grear went cold thanks to a combination defense employed by VHS coach Mike Coleman. The Missy Gators were able to hold the Wave to just one field goal in nearly a five-minute span and that was enough to earn a 60-56 victory.

VHS improves to 14-15 with the win. Port Gibson slips to 13-9.

“When we started the fourth quarter we put a man on No. 12 (Grear) and zoned the rest of them,” Coleman said. “Then when No. 15 (Amina Palmer) hit that last three, we went to a triangle-and-two.”

The Missy Gators defense helped lead to easy transition baskets by Kendra Sims to put VHS up 59-51.

Port Gibson finally abandoned trying to shoot treys and went inside to 6-foot post player Marineka Neal for a layup to make it 59-53 with 1:23 left.

Then Palmer hit her trey to close the gap to 59-56 at the 1:06 mark. VHS was hurt during this time by four straight turnovers and the last one gave Port Gibson a chance at a tie.

Grear was short on her 3-point attempt and on the rebound, VHS’ Rachel Jenkins was fouled. She made one of two foul shots for a 60-56 lead with 43 seconds left.

“We played lousy but Vicksburg’s defense contributed to it,” Port Gibson coach Harold Liggans said. “We just didn’t play very smart.”

Williams finished with 21 points while Jenkins had 14. Sims chipped in 12.

Grear led Port Gibson with 21 and Baker had 15. Palmer and Neal each had nine.

(B) P. Gibson 62, Vicksburg 50

A tough matchup zone and a red-hot Johnny Smith helped the Wave rally for a win.

Port Gibson moves to 16-12 on the season while VHS falls to 13-16.

Smith scored 17 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter as the Wave turned a 39-37 game into a 12-point win.

“Johnny is not really our go-to guy, but he was a big spark off the bench tonight,” Wave coach Kim Windom said.

Besides Smith, the Wave zone worked pretty well, too. VHS went from leading 26-17 at the half to trailing 53-45 after Smith hit his third trey of the fourth quarter with 3:03 left.

“We put in a new zone and it’s a lot like the Temple, 2-3 match-up,” Windom said. “Our guys responded.”

VHS coach Dellie C. Robinson credited the Wave defense.

“We couldn’t get the ball inside. We did a lousy job of trying to get it inside that match-up and that resulted in us taking some bad shots,” he said. “We got outplayed in the second half.”

Smith was the only Wave in double figures. Ryan Hedrick had nine.

VHS was led by Sederick Williams with 14.

(B) PCA 62, Immanuel 57

Porters Chapel reached the Academy A state tournament on Tuesday night with a 62-57 overtime win over Immanuel at East Holmes Academy in the North Central State Tournament.

Porters Chapel is scheduled to play CM&I, a team that has beaten PCA handily three times this season, on Friday. Win or lose, the Eagles qualified for the state tournament with the win over Immanuel. It will mark the first time since 1996-97 that PCA advanced to state.

“I think our guys deserve this,” PCA coach Mike Grzanich said. “They’ve played hard all year.”

Hayden Hales scored a game-high 17 points, Dan Ivey added 14 and Allen Cassell netted 12 for the Eagles (14-12).

Porters Chapel had a final shot in regulation with the game tied at 52, but the shot failed sending the game into overtime.

PCA used a quick 4-0 run in the overtime to take a lead it never relinquished.

(G) Calhoun 52, PCA 47

Porters Chapel’s girls were stunned in the first round of the Academy A North Central State tournament on Tuesday and were eliminated from the state tournament as well.

Annie Beaugh scored a team-high 20 points and Amy Beaugh added 15 for the Lady Eagles (19-9). PCA led most of the game, but a rash of fourth-quarter turnovers sparked Calhoun’s comeback.

Christin Denton scored a game-high 24 points for Calhoun, most coming on layups through the middle of the Lady Eagles’ zone defense.

(G) Murrah 65, WC 59

Carla Latham scored a game-high 26 points and Cookie Johnson added 15 in the Lady Vikes’ loss to Murrah.

Danielle Baldwin scored 21 to lead Murrah, which held an eight-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

“We could never get ahead,” WC coach Donny Fuller said.