VIDALIA – The Vidalia Vikings finally gave what head coach Robert Sanders had been looking for from his players – a solid first quarter – especially on offense.

The 23-point first quarter by the Vikings enabled them to go on and defeat the Newellton Bears 76-62 Tuesday night at the Vidalia High gym.

Louis McNulty scored a game-high 22 points and Tony Hawkins was right behind him with 21 points as the Vikings improved to 9-1 on the season.

&uot;We started out pretty strong,&uot; said Vikings head coach Robert Sanders. &uot;We had to play man-to-man defense on them. We still have to do a better job of covering their three-point shooters.&uot;

Vidalia led by only three points, 40-37, at the half before finally putting away the Bears by outscoring them 22-15 in the third quarter and 14-10 in the fourth quarter.

Carnell Hill led Newellton with 19 points and Chris Snowden added 17 points.

Vidalia will next play in the Ferriday Tournament against the winner of the Block/Wilkinson County game at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

In other games, the Newellton Lady Bears had no trouble with the Lady Vikings, winning 84-57.

Vidalia 76, Newellton 62

Newellton 16 21 15 10 62 Vidalia 23 17 22 14 76

Vidalia: Louis McNulty – 22; Tony Hawkins – 21; Ajay Warner – 11; Jessie Banks – 10; Josh Bush – 4; Ken Johnson – 3; Roderick Randall – 2; Jessie Lyles – 2; James McGraw – 1 Newellton: Carnell Hill – 19; Chris Snowden – 17; Dominique Martin – 10; Ian Jordan – 6; Comorio Smith – 4; Aretius Ransome – 2; Dexter Gales – 2; Sherman Jones – 2

Vidalia – 9-1 overall; next – vs. winner of Block/Wilkinson County game in Ferriday Tournament, 7:30 p.m. Friday