Missy Gators’ season ends after a 70-68 loss to Holmes County Central

The Vicksburg High School girl’s basketball season ended on Friday in a 70-68 loss to Holmes County Central.

VHS trailed 13-6 in the first quarter of play as they hesitated to get things going early in the game.

Layla Carter knocked down a 3-pointer to start the second quarter while James put up two free throws. The Missy Gators began to narrow HCC’s lead after two steal and scores by Carter to put the score at 23-21 with a few minutes remaining. The Jaguars eventually took a 28-21 halftime lead.

Missed rebounds continued to hurt VHS in the third quarter but Caples got the team going with a few layups along with a 3-pointer by Colenburg. A few clutch free throws by James kept the game close with the Jaguars leading 43-38 at the end of the quarter.

DeKyra Mitchell popped a 3-pointer for the Jaguars at the start of the fourth as both teams would go back and forth with each other in the final few minutes. Holmes County Central had a 68-60 lead with 3:37 left to play when Colenburg, Carter and Caples all went hard inside the paint  to narrow HCC’s lead to 62-58 with two minutes left.

A few missed layups by VHS would hurt their chances at the end while the Jaguars hit a few free throws that led to them upsetting the Missy Gators by two points as Caples eventually would foul out.

Carter led the Missy Gators with 21 points and Caples added 18. James finished with 12 points while Cynia Johnson and Jelisa Tyler both had six while Colenburg added five.

Mitchell had 27 for the Jaguars and Ixana Winters dropped 16 while A’Jah Davis contributed 12.

The Missy Gators finished things off with a 25-6 record with a fourth consecutive district title under head coach Troy Stewart.