A packed house at Vicksburg High had all kinds of things to see in the Gators’ home opener in the Vicksburg Warren Classic.

Port Gibson brought in a 7-foot, 2-inch center in Jamarious Sykes while the Gators brought in a preseason Top 10 ranking. The Gators lived up to the hype with a dominating 68-49 win as senior guard Jonathan Phelps poured in 24 points and Mychal Ammons, one of the nation’s most highly regarded freshmen, was impressive with 15 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Veteran Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson was certainly thrilled with Ammons’ home debut.

“He can do it all. Score, rebound, defend. He was the piece we were missing last year. We have it now. And this is a team that got a lot done this summer. We played 48 games, including going 12-0 at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg,” Robinson said.

Vicksburg (2-0) went up by 28 points at one point after a 10-0 run gave them a 52-24 advantage with 2 minutes, 12 seconds left in the third quarter. Port Gibson (2-2) could not find an offense, even with the towering Sykes, who was held to six points and five rebounds.

“I thought we had a pretty good game plan for them. We were going to attack that 1-3-1 zone they like, but he (Robinson) changed it up bringing his two guards up and that took us out of our game,” Port Gibson coach Kim Windom said. “Vicksburg was able to get some turnovers and create some easy shots.”

A big reason why was Ammons, who helped anchor the middle of the Gators’ half-court defense, allowing Phelps and Jaybri Williams to put more pressure out front.

“We wanted to come out strong since this was our first home game. We had a lot of fans here,” Phelps said as the Gators broke out to a 12-0 lead with six points coming from the senior. Ammons chipped in six points of his own, along with four rebounds as the Gators grabbed a 22-9 lead after one quarter.

“What Mychal gives us is a guy who can catch the ball in the middle of the defense, and yeah, he can shoot the ball, too. That opens up the court for me to drive,” Phelps said.

Ammons showed off his range when he banked in a three-pointer off an inbound set to hand Vicksburg a 30-14 advantage.

In the second half, Phelps had another 12 points on easy runners while Ammons was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Windom took Sykes out early in the fourth quarter to go to a press and that helped jump start Port Gibson’s offense. The Blue Waves were able to get the deficit down to 19 but could come no closer.

Kadeem Fleming scored 12 of his 15 in the final 10 minutes of the game. Cortez Magee had nine.

(G) Vicksburg 55, PG 41

Six points by Kamiko Martin in the final two minutes helped the Missy Gators (1-1) turn a would-be Port Gibson rally into a comfortable home-opening win.

Vicksburg saw a 16-point lead trimmed to nine at 48-39 when Martin scored a basket and made four straight free throws to put the Missy Gators up 55-39. She finished with 13 points.

Taylor Ammons, a 6-foot senior, had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Alexus Stirgus had 12 points.

Port Gibson (1-3) got 16 points from Lillie Porter and 15 from Eugena Grigsby.

(B) HAHS 81, C. Springs 73

Hinds AHS (3-0) placed six players in double figures to turn back Crystal Springs Tuesday night. Kenderek Washington and Erik Burks scored 15 each. Keesley Stewart and JaCorey Wright had 12 each while Keith Williams and Derek Burks had 10 apiece.

Jaquilla Tillman led Crystal Springs with 24 and Jamal Tobias had 22.