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MILWAUKEE – Rivalry games are not always pretty. And in the case of Friday night’s Milwaukee City Conference Gold Division girls basketball showdown between Milwaukee Rufus King and Milwaukee Vincent, that was certainly the case.

The teams committed 50 combined turnovers, but it was Vincent, the defending WIAA Division 1 state champions that persevered and earned a 52-32 victory to emerge as the lone unbeaten within the conference.

“We pressured them full court the whole game,” Vincent coach Marquis Hines said. “Defense wins basketball games and we always preach that to our girls.”

Despite all the turnovers, 28 when it was all said and done for the Generals (6-1, 10-3), King cut what was an 18-point deficit to seven in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

What followed, however, was a 17-4 run to end the game and make the final score look rather lopsided.

“At times it looked like we were playing scared,” said second-year King coach Craig Machut after his team shot 1 of 15 in the fourth quarter. “We’ve got a lot of youth that didn’t look ready for the big stage.

“We couldn’t get anything going offensively. They play incredible man-to-man defense, we knew that coming in, but we weren’t able to produce.”

Vincent (7-0, 12-0) was never rattled by the push by King, which was on an 12-1 run, and came back with that defense.

“We work on pressure situations like that with the girls all the time,” Hines said. “We just keep the pressure on, that’s all we do.”

The Vikings, ranked No. 1 in this week’s Associated Press Division 1 poll, broke open a 9-9 game with an 11-0 run in the first half. Seven of those points were scored by Sydney Howard who finished with a game-high 12 points.

“She’s a very good shooter,” said Vincent senior center Nicole Griffin, who also had 12 points. “That’s her main thing. She came with it and made her shots.”

With the upper hand at its first outright City Conference Gold Division title since 1998 – they shared it the last two years – Vincent now has the upper hand in the conference race.

“Our goals are we want to win conference, win a regional title, a sectional title and to win a state championship,” Hines said. “We’ve won a state championship. We’ve won a regional and sectional, but never outright won the league with this group.

“We’re not really thinking about that right now, but it does feel pretty good to be in position to win it.”

Notes: Jasmine Reynolds led King with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half. … Iesha Eaton and Tynika Rogers each added nine points for Vincent. … King shot 11 of 40 (27 percent) for the game. … Vincent shot 11 of 20 from the free-throw line for the game, but was 8 of 13 in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

MILWAUKEE KING………..……..9 7 11 5—32

MILWAUKEE VINCENT…….13 12 10 17—52

MK—DeAndra Jones 5, Alexis Eckles 11, Sakeenah Rashada 1, Avyannah Young 4, Jasmine Reynolds 8. 3-PT: Reynolds 2, Jones 1. FT: 7-19. Total Fouls: 18. Fouled out: Young.

MV—Chelan Landry 7, Iesha Eaton 9, Tynika Rogers 9, Telena Nash 6, Teiara Martin 3, Kiana Jacobs 2, Sydney Howard 12, Nicole Griffin 12. 3-PT: Rogers 3, Howard 2. FT: 11-20. Total Fouls: 18. Fouled out: Rogers.