Big first and third quarters coupled with hot shooting was just what the Vikings needed to get past Lake Providence 71-59 at home Friday night.

Vidalia started out the game on a 7-0 run and forced the Panthers to call an early time out. Brandon Hawkins made three big shots from behind the arc on his way to 11 first-quarter points.

“Our half court offense looked good in the first quarter,” Viking coach Robert Sanders said.

He added the Vikings also used several different defensive looks to throw off the Panthers.

The result was an 11-point lead at the close of the first quarter, as the Vikings led 25-14.

Several younger players saw action at the start of the second quarter, but several early turnovers created scoring opportunities for the Panthers, and with 4:30 to go in the quarter Vidalia’s lead was cut to five, which was the closest the Panthers would come to the Vikings. The Vikings’ starting five returned to the game to rebuild the lead to 12, 37-25, by the end of the first half.

In the third quarter, Vidalia’s top scorer Gary Stewart took matters into his own hands and scored 10 of the Vikings’ 16 third-quarter points to lead the early second-half charge. Much like the first quarter, the Vikings used multiple defensive looks to keep Lake Providence off balance, and used hot shooting to control the tempo of the game in the second half.

The Panthers used full court pressure to try to get back in the game, but Stewart and the Vikings did not falter and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the final quarter to give the Vikings a 71-59 victory and a win to close out the regular season.

“Us keeping them off-balanced with our defense and hot shooting in the first and third quarter was the key to the game,” Sanders said.

Vidalia girls 14, Lake Providence 47

It was a rough night for the Lady Vikings, as they were held scoreless in the first and third quarters before falling by the final of 47-14.

“The key in the loss was cold shooting. We were ice cold,” Lady Viking head coach Damus smith said.

The Lady Vikings kept things close in the first quarter, despite being held scoreless, the Vidalia defense limited the Lady Panthers to eight points in the opening quarter.

Lake Providence opened things up in the second quarter as they scored 13, but Dejanae Harris scored the Lady Vikings only points of the first half with seven to keep Vidalia within 14 at the half, trailing 21-7.

The Lady Panthers continued their offensive attack in the third and put the game out of reach by holding the Lady Vikings scoreless and tacking on 14 points of their own to take a 35-7 lead.

Harris scored five more points in the fourth, while teammate Shelti Craft chipped in two, but Lake Providence scored 12 points for good measure and downed the Lady Vikings 47-14.

“We just didn’t come to play,” Smith said. “Our goal was to knock them out of the play-offs, but that backfired.”