Another second-half comeback went to waste for Warren Central Tuesday night.

The Vikings made plenty of free throws but couldn’t get a key jump shot or drive to the basket to go down in a disappointing 57-52 Senior Night loss to Madison Central.

The visiting Jaguars came in with just four wins but benefitted from the Vikings’ shooting struggles. WC shot 3-for-17 from the floor in the fourth quarter and could not complete a rally from 16-point halftime deficit.

Vikings coach Jesse Johnson said poor shooting has plagued his team during the season’s second half.

“We’re just not an effective jump-shooting team,” Johnson said. “Once again, we put ourselves in a hole by shooting bad in the first half. We did a good job of getting back into the game, but then we couldn’t finish shots.”

The Vikings missed short and long but the biggest miss came with WC down three, 55-52, with 16 seconds left. Senior Jeremy Harper, who had an excellent second half after sitting out most of the first with three fouls, watched his potential game-tying 3-pointer hit the back rim.

Madison Central’s Phillip Kendrick iced the game later with two free throws.

Madison Central coach Jeff Heath felt fortunate to leave WC with a win.

“You’re just thrilled to get a road win,” said Heath whose team improved to 5-13. “In the first half, we got the shots we wanted and we did a nice job on the boards. We didn’t do as good a job of that in the second half and they came back.”

Up 18-17, the Jaguars went on a 15-0 run to close out the first half. Dehendrick Johnson dropped in 15 of his 17 points in the second quarter to key the surge as Harper and Gerald Glass sat on the bench.

Both came back in the third quarter and keyed a 13-3 run to make it 38-31. Harper hit a pair of 3-pointers while Glass had five points.

WC got to within four at 40-36, but Madison Central answered with six straight points to go back up 10.

With 1:59 left, WC’s Kourey Davis began a parade to the line. The Vikings made eight straight free throws to counter a 4-for-6 effort by the Jaguars. Glass had the final two makes with 21.5 seconds left to make it 54-52.

Madison’s Kelvin Williams made one of two with 17 seconds left to set up the final sequence.

Glass finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Davis had just seven points but did well in other areas with nine rebounds and eight assists.