GREENVILLE  — Any flicker of hope Warren Central had of knocking off the red-hot Vicksburg Gators Tuesday in the Division 4-6A Tournament was quickly extinguished by the deadeye marksmanship of Kelsey Howard.

The senior guard knocked down all five of his shots in the opening quarter, sparking Vicksburg to a 30-point halftime lead and a 92-59 rout of the Vikings.

Thursday’s scores

Girls

3 p.m. – WC at Greenville

Boys

4:30 p.m. – Vicksburg at Greenville

The Gators (24-2) cruised into the tournament finals on Thursday against Greenville-Weston.

“This was the first game of the division tournament, I had to be ready,” said Howard, who finished with 22 points. “I felt pretty comfortable from the start.”

That was good news for Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson.

The Gators led 31-11 after one quarter, 49-19 at the half and 72-38 after three quarters.

“Kelsey came out on fire and then we were able to just get it over with in the second half without anyone getting hurt,” Robinson said.

For Warren Central coach Jesse Johnson, the blowout loss — the third this year to the Gators by more than 27 points — showed the difference between the two programs. The Vikings finished the season at 3-25, the second straight year that they have won less than 10 games.

“My biggest concern is that we have so many guys playing multiple sports. Vicksburg has 15 guys in its gym all the time and I’ve got, maybe, six,” Johnson said. “But we’ve got a good group coming up from our ninth grade. They went 17-4 this year and I’m looking forward to mixing them with the crew we have coming back.”

Vicksburg’s future is a divisional title game and a berth in next week’s North State playoffs.

The division title game was moved to Thursday afternoon because of a  winter storm forecast for Thursday night.

Mychal Ammons and Kiente Ross each had 12 points for the Gators. Chris Miller chipped in 11.

Warren Central was led by Cory Davis with 21 points.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com