VIDALIA — As the walls were shaking from the crowd’s emotions, the Vidalia Vikings came back from a 13-point deficit and defeated the Sicily Island Tigers 79-72 in overtime in the second round of the Ronnie Brown Memorial Basketball Tournament.

The win sends Vidalia (6-1) to the championship game tonight against the Ferriday Trojans.

Sicily Island cruised in the first half and found themselves up 34-23 entering the third quarter.

“It looked like déj vu in the first half,” Vidalia head coach Robert Sanders said. “We had to turn up the defense.”

The Vikings were down by as many as 13 points in the third, but Gary Stewart woke up and poured on 11 points in the quarter to pull Vidalia within four at the end of the quarter.

The Tigers continued to play well behind the performance of Karlos Gary who hit five straight free throws in the fourth and kept Sicily Island in the lead.

With seven seconds left in the fourth quarter, Vidalia clung to a 70-69 lead before fouling Gary and sending him to the line once more.

Gary missed the first shot but made the second to send the contest into overtime.

Sicily Island took the tip-off, but it was Stewart who scored first for Vidalia.

The Tigers’ only score in the overtime was a lay-up by Gary.

Quatrell Thomas made key free throws for the Vikings while Vidalia only fouled once in the overtime en route to the victory.

“We made too many turnovers and not enough free throws,” Sanders said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

Gary led all scorers with 34 points for the Tigers.

Stewart led the Vikings with 26 points while teammates Torrey Dixon scored 21 and Quatrell Thomas scored 19.

Tensas Parish girls 58, Vidalia 35

The Vidalia Lady Vikings ran out of luck in the second round of the Ronnie Brown Memorial Basketball Tournament as they fell to the Tensas Parish Panthers 58-35 Friday night.

Vidalia (3-4) missed easy shots in the lane and couldn’t find a rhythm to mount any kind of comeback.

The Lady Tigers held the Lady Vikings to 14 points in the second half while scoring 24 of their own.

Four Lady Tigers scored in double digits in the victory. Morgan Robinson and Beaunta Banks each had 15 to lead all scorers.

Alaina Burns scored 10 to lead Vidalia.