Warren Central’s girl’s basketball team set the tone early coming out in full court press on defense from the opening whistle and wore Vicksburg down on the way to an 80-42 victory Saturday.

The game marked the second straight game the Lady Vikings (9-1) have topped 80 points despite playing both games without leading scorer Amber Gaston who was out with an ankle injury.

“Not having my big girl in the middle, it gave my girls a chance to see how they were going to play without her,” Warren Central head coach Jackie Glass said. “It shows the appreciation for her (Gaston), they can appreciate what she brings to the game, but it also gives them an idea of what they have to do if she’s not in the game.”

Glass said she chose to play a full court press from the get go to capitalize on the inexperience among Vicksburg’s (5-4) guards. The pressure had the intended impact as the Lady Vikings were able to force nine steals in just the first half and keep the Missy Gators from ever finding a rhythm on offense.

“Based on scouting them and watching them, I knew they were pretty weak at the guard position,” Glass said. “Anytime we can determine what the other team’s weakness is we try to expose that. We came out planning to pressure the ball and see if they can handle adversity. If they showed they could handle it, I probably would have pulled off, but since they weren’t handling it well we stuck with it.”

The Lady Vikings built a 17-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, but then really pulled away as they started the second quarter on a 17-2 run before the Missy Gators made their first basket of the quarter, a 3-pointer by Ke’Mari Smith, more than five minutes into the quarter.

Vicksburg traded baskets for the remainder of the half, but trailed 43-22 going into the break.

“They are a good team, but I think we had more to do with it than they did. We just threw away the ball too much,” Vicksburg head coach Troy Stewart said. “We are young and I saw youth. We’ve got a lot of growing to do. Starting two freshmen, it is a matter of maturity.”

The Lady Vikings were able to put together a similar run at the beginning of the third out scoring Vicksburg 14-3 to start the second half. By the end of the period, Warren Central was up 68-32 before coasting to a 38-point victory.

“Overall, I thought we played well, but I thought we could have played much better,” Glass said. “I wasn’t really happy with the fact that we missed a lot of easy opportunities and we fouled a little too much.”

Warren Central senior T’onna Sims lead all scorers with 20 points as she went 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Vicksburg was led by Smith, who scored 17 points and was the only Missy Gator in double digits.

Aniya Sanders finished with a double-double for the Lady Vikings scoring 18 points and pulling down 13 rebounds.

Warren Central will return to the court Tuesday with a game at Brandon and Glass said she expects Gaston to return in time for the game.

The Missy Gators play Forest Hill in Jackson on Tuesday.