The season started with a losing streak for Warren Central’s ninth-grade boys basketball team, and ended with a championship celebration.

The ninth-grade Vikings won the Little Six Conference championship last week by beating Rosa Scott in the league’s tournament championship game. It was their first Little Six title in more than 20 years, and what they hope is the first of many over the next few years.

“I think we can build off of this and get better. If this group of guys stays together, we can make something happen,” guard Jalen Glass said. “I do feel like we can bring some trophies home in the future.”

Championships and big moments have been rare for Warren Central’s boys basketball program over the years. Its varsity team hasn’t been to the state tournament since 1974, and even division tournament titles have been few and far between.

Since he took over as head coach in 2012, varsity coach Bruce Robinson has made a concerted effort — and progress — toward changing that culture of losing and mediocrity. The Little Six title, and more importantly the players who made it happen, might be the key to finally doing it.

Glass scored 18 points in the championship game, including 10 in the fourth quarter, and KeJuanta Smith scored 15. Jamaris McDaniel added 14 points off the bench as the Vikings rallied from a 10-point deficit in the first quarter to beat Rosa Scott 71-57.

Warren Central scored 30 points in the fourth quarter and five players finished with at least eight points. Chris Greene scored 11 and 3-point specialist P.J. Mims had eight.

“My starting five is really the key. You’ll hear from them pretty soon. But we had bench guys play their best game in the championship,” said James Lewis, Warren Central’s ninth-grade coach. “It was a total team effort.”

It was a pretty good turnaround, too.

The Vikings lost their first two games of the season, then ripped off five consecutive road wins to get the season on track. They wound up winning 13 of their last 15 games, earned the No. 3 seed for the league tournament, and beat Brandon and Vicksburg on the way to the final. They finished the season with a 13-4 record.

“At that age, everybody wants to score. Once they got that first victory and saw it was going to be about defense and rebounding they bought into it,” Lewis said. “It was a special thing to watch.”

Now, as the ninth-grade Vikings start moving up to the varsity ranks, the hope is they’ll be even more special over the next three seasons. Warren Central’s freshman class has gotten some buzz as a group to watch in several sports, and Lewis said this could be the beginning of a special era for the school’s basketball program.

“I think it’s big,” Lewis said. “The ninth-grade program is like the feeder program, so to start this tradition I feel like the program is heading in the right direction. Not just the ninth grade, but the whole program.”