The Vicksburg Gators’ up-and-down season ended, appropriately enough, with a seesaw battle that they came out on the wrong end of.

The Gators rallied back to tie the game after trailing by 13 points at halftime, but Robert Boyd hit two free throws with 7.2 seconds left to give Holmes County Central a 56-54 win over Vicksburg in the first round of the MHSAA Class 5A boys state tournament on Wednesday night.

Vicksburg had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but senior guard K.J. Murphy’s 3-pointer was off the mark.

“We went to a 1-3-1 trap and held them to three points in the third quarter. We played good in the second half,” Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson said. “They made some 3-point shots right off the bat on us.”

Holmes County Central (16-11) advanced to face Center Hill in a second-round game Friday night.

Vicksburg finished with an 11-17 record and never won more than three games in a row at any point in the season. Despite making it to the state tournament for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons, it finished with back-to-back losing seasons.

Vicksburg was 13-14 last season.

“We had a great run,” Robinson said. “We can’t complain. We’ve had a great run.”