FERRIDAY, La. – Vidalia High’s varsity boys and girls teams advanced to the semifinals with wins Thursday night in the Coca-Cola/Ferriday High School Invitational Tournament.

In the varsity boys game, the Vikings had to come from behind to defeat the Wilkinson County High Wildcats 64-49.

Wilkinson County (0-10) led Vidalia (8-4) for much of the first half until the Vikings went on an 8-2 run to tie the score at 27 at halftime.

&uot;We started off slow. We didn’t play good, especially on defense,&uot; said Vidalia’s Jarvis Vaughn, who led all scorers with 28 points.

The lead changed several times in the third quarter, with Vidalia taking a 43-37 lead on Vaughn’s jumper at the end of the quarter. Vaughn scored 10 of his points in that quarter.

The Vikings then took command by outscoring the Wildcats 21-12 for the final score.

&uot;We started out kind of slow,&uot; said Vikings head coach Robert Sanders. &uot;Once they realized their backs were against the wall, they started playing better defense.&uot;

Derrick Johnson had 15 points and nine rebounds and A.J. Warner added 12 points for Vidalia.

Charlie Spiller led Wilkinson County with 24 points, including six three-pointers, to go along with five rebounds and four steals.

In the varsity girls game, the Lady Vikings jumped out to a big halftime lead and held on for a 67-58 win over the the Lady Wildcats (4-6).

Natalie McGraw had 23 points – including two three-pointers, nine rebounds and four steals – Brendy Ellis had 21 points and five rebounds and Wendy Paul had 15 points for the Lady Vikings (8-4).

Natasha Dennis had 28 points and 18 rebounds and Pershunna Turnbull had eight blocks and 10 rebounds to lead Wilkinson County.

Vidalia’s girls team will play Block at 6 p.m. and the boys team plays Sicily Island at 7:30 p.m. today in the second round of the tournament.