Provine coach Luther Riley said his Class 5A defending champion Rams had to replace 50 percent of their offense after 2008 Mr. Basketball, Scotty Harallson, left for the University of Connecticut and another senior, Carl Blair, left for the junior college ranks.

The Rams, though, had plenty of offense to end Warren Central’s brief perch atop the Division 4-5A standings with Tuesday night’s 82-53 beatdown at WC. Provine (16-3, 2-0) hit nine 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 13 in the game to beat the Vikings (2-11, 1-1).

WC assistant coach Matt Lum, again sitting in for head coach Jesse Johnson, said WC could not match the hot-shooting Rams, who shot 54 percent (28-of-52).

“I’m proud of our guys,” Lum said. “Provine just shot lights out. Those were contested threes that they hit.”

Riley said long-range shooting has been a staple at Provine.

“We’re always going to have shooters, maybe not as good as Scotty, but we have guys who can shoot. When Scotty and Carl Blair left, that took 50 percent of our offense from last year’s team,” Riley said. “I think we’re a little more balanced this year. We’ve regularly had three or four guys in double figures every night.”

Ram guards Marcus Hooten, Jarvis Summers and Glen Collins each hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter and all three finished in double figures. Hooten and Summers had 15 points each while Collins had 13.

WC played aggressively from the start and the Vikings were only down 12-11 when the Rams’ barrage heated up. Treys by Hooten and Summers keyed a late spurt to put Provine up 27-13 after one quarter.

WC went to a half-court trap and that bothered the Rams, causing six turnovers and fueling a 7-0 run that made it 27-20 after Dino Harris made three of four foul shots following an intentional foul commited by Provine’s Ira Wade.

“We just put that trap in Monday and it worked pretty good until we started getting in foul trouble,” Lum said.

WC lost starter Eric Hall after four fouls and a technical were assessed while top scorers Dino Harris and Malculm Harper had three fouls each in the first half.

WC was down 18 at the half and then came out and missed its first six shots of the third quarter and fell behind 25 points at 58-33.

Treys from Austin Roberts and Joe Harris helped the Vikings cut it down to 16 at 60-44 with 29 seconds left in the third quarter. But Hooten answered for the Rams with a four-point play as the horn sounded to put Provine up 20 at 64-44.

Harris led WC with 20 points while Harper finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.

WC girls beat Provine, 66-56

Provine ended the Lady Vikes’s season last year in the division tournament, but WC returned the favor by winning Tuesday’s divisional matchup to improve to 2-0 in 4-5A. Sha’Kayla Caples scored 24 points and Ricille Davis fired in a season-high 18 to lead the Lady Vikes (16-1).

Provine got a game-high 34 points from Kianna Harris but fell to 0-2 in the division.

Caples scored 13 in the second quarter to key a 14-0 run to start the second quarter.

The Lady Vikes led 37-24 at the half. Harris scored five straight points to trim the lead to seven early in the third quarter but WC answered with three baskets by Davis and the lead never dipped below 12 points until the final seconds.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.