photo by Marcus Frazier

Vidalia’s Gary Stewart goes up for a basket over Tensas’ Corey Brown and Newtrell Brown Thursday evening during the Ferriday High Invitational Tournament.

Vikings use huge first quarter to coast to easy win

By Matt Burrowes | The Natchez Democrat

Published Friday, December 14, 2007

FERRIDAY — The Vidalia Vikings used a 27-point first period to down the Tensas Parish Panthers in the Ferriday High School Invitational Thursday.

“We were able to get some shots from the outside to open up shots down low,” Vidalia head coach Roberts Sanders said.

The Vikings hit four 3-pointers in the first period and coasted to a 85-64 victory.

“I thought we played better tonight than we have been doing,” Tensas Parish head coach Carl Washington said. “We like playing the stronger schools like Ferriday and Vidalia. It gets us ready for our district.”

The Panthers only hit 2 of 16 from the free throw line, a number of misses came on one and ones.

“We helped them by not hitting our free throws,” Washington said. “We missed some easy shots too.”

Quartrell Thomas with 24 points and Gary Stewart with 21 led the Vikings in scoring.

“We got in a good rhythm tonight,” Stewart said. “We got in a slump in the second and third periods but we pushed it out in the fourth.”

The Panthers found a way to score on the Vikings but couldn’t stop them in those quarters before being outscored 21-16 in the fourth.

“There are still some things we need to work on,” Washington said. “We need to work on our shot selections and blocking out. We allowed too many shots down low tonight.”

The Vikings moved to 8-2 on the season.

Tensas Parish girls 50, Vidalia 41

The Vidalia Lady Vikings fought hard but were unable to overcome the Tensas Parish Lady Panthers.

They fell 50-41 Thursday in the Ferriday High School Invitational.

After falling behind 12-4 in the first period, the Lady Vikings slowly chipped away at the Lady Panthers to cut their lead to four at halftime.

Vidalia kept the momentum in the second half and pulled ahead by two points before the Daffeny Yarrington and the Lady Panthers shut the doors.

Yarrington led Tensas Parish with 19 points, all coming in the second half.

Tyshica Rodgers led Vidalia with 13 points while Gabrielle and Rachael Wagoner had 10 points each.