OXFORD — Playing Ridgeland for the fourth time this season, Vicksburg High coach Dellie C. Robinson felt he needed to come up with some new wrinkles in his team’s biggest game to this point.

The Gators used those defensive wrinkles to force seven fourth quarter turnovers to spur Vicksburg’s 56-42 win at the North State Class 4A Tournament.

With the victory, the Gators (29-6) punched their ticket to the State 4A Tournament next week at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.

Vicksburg will play New Hope tonight at 7:30 in the North State championship game at Oxford High.

“No question about it, defense helped us beat Ridgeland tonight,” an emotional, sweat-soaked Robinson said afterward, trying to swipe away beads of sweat from his forehead. This marks the first time since Vicksburg won the Class 5A title in 2003 that they are headed back to the Big House.

“Hey, it’s tremendous to be going back to the Big House. That’s our goal — to get there,” Robinson said.

The victory was special also for senior starters Jonathan Phelps, John Qualls and Delmon Robinson. The trio helped a key mix of man and zone pressure on the Titans to force 11 second half turnovers and just 16-of-44 shooting.

“Defense wins games and we’re about winning games,” Delmon Robinson said. “This is real special, because our main goal was to get to the Colisuem and the ultimate goal is to win it. But right now, we’ve shown we’re one of the best teams in the state of Mississippi because the 4A class is so strong.”

Phelps had what has become a commonplace post-season outing. He scored a game-best 29 points and finshed off Ridgeland (26-10) by making 5 of 6 free throws in the final 55.4 seconds.

“This is my experience to go to the Big House and I’m real glad we’re going,” Phelps said. “I had pressure to lead this team there because I’m a Dandy (Dozen) and some thought I couldn’t do it. But tonight was about making my teammates better.”

Phelps certainly did that as well with a game-best six assists. One of the best was a 30-foot lob to freshman Mychal Ammons, who scored on a reverse layup to give Vicksburg its first double-digit lead of the game at 41-30 with 5:54 to play.

Ridgeland came back with its last good push, scoring the next five points to get it back to 41-35 after a basket by Jeff Stubbs.

The Gators then got two free throws from Ammons, a Phelps layup off a steal by Kelsey Howard, and another 15-foot jumper by Phelps in between a score by the Titans to make it 46-37.

Trailing by nine, Ridgeland had a shot to get back to within six but four straight turnovers beginning at the 2:40 mark sealed the Titans’ trip to a do-or-die consolation game tonight against Callaway.

“We ran some good sets in the first half and kept the score low for a half but we couldn’t do it for the full game,” Ridgeland coach Roderick Davis said. “The turnovers hurt us and Phelps showed why he is a Dandy Dozen.”

Howard finished with 10 points, including a big 3-pointer to end the third quarter and turn a 31-27 edge into a 34-27 cushion.

“A tremendous shot by Kelsey, but that’s what we come to expect from him,” Dellie C. Robinson said.

The Titans were led by James Archie with 12 points and T.J. Allen with 11.