It was a clean sweep for Vicksburg basketball on opening night Thursday as both the boy’s and girl’s teams beat Brookhaven at home.

The Missy Gators got things started by scratching out a hard-fought 41-39 victory over the Panthers to start the season 1-0. Vicksburg dominated the boards late, as Karry Callahan hauled in 11 rebounds to lead the team and help close out the victory.

“By this being the first game, we need to work more on our defense and being consistent and patient on offense,” assistant coach Deborah Brown said. “On defense, we need to move with or without the ball and we’ve got to make wide open layups.”

On the men’s side, Vicksburg utilized clutch free throws and solid defense down the stretch to down Brookhaven 53-42. The two teams went bucket for bucket for much of the contest before the Gators were able to break the game open in the fourth quarter behind smart shooting and dominant post play by center Kirk Parker.

“I saw a lot of heart. The kids kept battling, especially when Brookhaven kept making those runs. We kept on battling, they kept on battling,” coach Dellie Robinson said. “We were finally able there to take the discretion to make good shots and get a comfortable lead and slow it down a little bit.”

Justin Selvy, who scored 19 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and recorded a steal in the win, paced the Gators. Selvy was Vicksburg’s sparkplug on offense and drove the lane for a beautiful reverse layup to seal the win late in the fourth quarter.

“(He) made some big shots and hit some big free throws for us,” Robinson said. “Justin’s our energy guy. He played with a lot of energy and when he’s going, he’s going. He’s going to give everything every single night.”

It was a nice start to the season for the Gators, who are still working out the kinks that come with being a youthful team. Robinson said he would like to see better guard play from his players as the year progresses, but he was happy with the way they dug out a win over a good Brookhaven team.

“We certainly have to have better guard play if we want to get where we want to go,” Robinson said. “Our guards are going to have to get better.”

Despite its youth, though, the goals for this team haven’t changed for Robinson, who has built Vicksburg into a perennial state championship contender — winning a 5A title in 2003.

“Our goal is to get to the (Jackson) Coliseum. That’s our goal,” Robinson said. “We don’t have but one goal. Anything short of that goal is disappointing to us. We’re practicing like we want to get to the Coliseum and that’s the only goal we have.”