The result of the Warren Central-Vicksburg game Saturday was much like the first time these two teams hit the floor in December. The Lady Vikes and Missy Gators traded buckets and bruises for much of four quarters until one team pulled away late. This time, it was Warren Central’s turn to take control and scratch out a win.

The Lady Vikes used physical post play and a timely shooting to overcome a late Vicksburg surge, beating their city rivals 46-44 to take revenge for the previous loss. Led by point guard T.T. Sims and Decada Taylor, Warren Central edged Vicksburg in a back-and-forth game that had the sell-out crowd spilling out into the gym lobby on their feet.

“I felt it was a little bit more physical than it should have been, but I knew coming in that this was our biggest rival. They were going to play above their heads and we were going to play above our heads too,” Warren Central coach Jacqueline Glass said. “It was just going to go back and forth. At some point I thought we were going to extend the lead, but that’s just the nature of this type of game.”

The Lady Vikes weren’t able to extend that lead even in the closing seconds when the game all but seemed locked up.

The first half ended with the score knotted at 21 apeice until Sims went coast-to-coast to break the tie. The lead didn’t last, however, after a Karry Callahan put-back put the Missy Gators on top 27-26. Callahan finished the game with 12 points, but Glass seemed happy with the way her team handled the explosive Vicksburg player.

“Last time Ruddie (Shears) had about 21 points and Callahan had about 15. Our goal coming into tonight was to disrupt their game,” Glass said. “I told them to make the other players on the team have the burden of beating us, not the ones that were doing it before.”

Shears was held to just four points in the loss.

After Callahan’s basket, WC shot out on a 6-2 run to take a 39-31 lead that seemed like it would ice the game. But Vicksburg came storming back  with a 5-0 run of its own with just three minutes to play to pull within two points. With the score at 42-41 with 1:09 remaining in the game, Lamaria Gray had her inbound pass stolen, only to get it back herself and drive the lane to draw a foul. Gray, however, missed both free throws, but Sims came through with a clutch steal, drawing a foul and knocking down both of her shots from the charity stripe to bring the score to 44-41.

Warren Central added one more score before Callahn drilled a three pointer with no time left, but it would be too little, too late.

“I think we came out and executed well our triangle two and box-and-one,” Glass said. “We’ve won our last three games so we’re kind of on that winning streak. We’re just going to try to keep it going.”