The Ferriday Trojans rallied late in the fourth quarter to defeat the Vidalia Vikings 55-51 at home in the Ferriday Hoops Classic Saturday night.

In the first quarter, the Trojans built an early 15-11 lead, as the Vikings experienced early foul trouble.

But the Vikings bounced back in the second quarter as Gary Stewart scored eight of Vidalia’s 14 second quarter points to put the Vikings ahead 26-25 at the half.

Vidalia maintained a one-point lead through a low scoring third quarter that was littered with turnovers.

The Vikings came out strong in the fourth quarter and managed to build a four-point lead, but Bulldogs refused to go away. With 24 seconds to go in the contest, Matthew Smith for Ferriday scored a bucket to put the Bulldogs up by one, and ultimately for good as the Bulldogs downed the Vikings 55-51.

Ferriday head coach James Davis said he was not pleased with his team’s performance.

“It’s always good to get the win, but I was not pleased with our outing tonight,” he said. “We did a lot of things tonight to hurt ourselves.”

Despite the unsatisfactory outing, Davis said his team was able to make key free throws down the stretch.

Vidalia head coach Robert Sanders said Viking mistakes down the stretch proved costly.

“We needed to be more patient,” he said.

Sanders said his team displayed a better effort than on Friday.

“We just have to learn from this loss and improve in the future.”

In girls action:

The Ferriday Lady Trojans scored 37 points in the first half to put away the Vidalia Lady Vikings early.

The Lady Trojans scored 17 first quarter points to build an early 10-point lead over the Lady Vikings.

The Lady Trojan defense held Vidalia to 5 second quarter points, while their offense posted 20 pints of their own to take a 37-12 lead at the half.

In the second half, the Lady Trojans put things on cruise control, giving up only 17 second half points to the Lady Vikings and waltzing to a 56-29 victory.

“Our defense played a big role in tonight’s win,” said Lady Trojan head coach Lisa Abron.

Abron said the Lady Trojans caused several Lady Viking turnovers in the game, which led to a large early lead.

“We managed to get a nice lead, and everybody got to play. That was a good thing,” said Abron.

Lady Viking head coach Damus Smith said despite the big loss, he saw some improve from his young team.

“I saw good things from some players that have not seen much action,” he said.

Smith said the Lady Viking shot the ball better than in previous games, adding that it (shooting) was something the team has worked on a lot lately.

“It’s going to get better with time,” said Smith.