VIDALIA — The Vikings’ fans made their demands loud and clear: they wanted the score to reach triple digits.

Leading Carver High School 98-34 with just over two minutes to play, Vidalia High School failed to score for the next minute, while the Rams hit two field goals.

The fans were getting anxious, and D.J. Polk missing a free throw with 1:08 left made it seem like those final two points were going to be an adventure — for a few seconds at least.

However, Vidalia’s Alvin Bell got the rebound, and put the ball through the hoop to finally give the Vikings faithful what they wanted with 1:04 to go. Brandon Bauchman added two more points, as Vidalia cruised past Carver 102-38 in the first round of the LHSAA Class 3A playoffs Friday.

Despite the enthusiasm of the fan base, Vikings head coach Robert Sanders said the triple-digit scoring wasn’t his team’s biggest accomplishment that evening.

“The players and the fans wanted it,” Sanders said. “It’s special to them, but from a coach’s standpoint, we were more concerned with keeping them under 40.”

Vidalia set the tone early, jumping out to a 24-7 lead after the first quarter, and 56-19 lead at the half. Defensive intensity led to a number of blocked shots inside by the Vikings, with which Sanders said he was pleased.

“We stepped up quite a bit on defense and on the boards,” Sanders said. “We also managed to keep our turnovers at a minimum for a change.”

On offense, a strong passing game allowed easy opportunities underneath the basket for Vidalia, and the Viking players were able to capitalize on pushing the ball inside.

“We did well passing and getting the ball to the open man,” Sanders said. “The fact that we could go inside was good, but some of our big men have to do a better job of catching the ball and knowing when to go up. There were a couple of times where they weren’t ready, because they were expecting the other guy to shoot the ball (instead of pass it).”

Quartrell Thomas led Vidalia with 28 points. Torrey Dixon added 26 points, Alvin Bell tallied 12 and Quan Riley scored 11.

“Quartrell was on his outside game tonight,” Sanders said. “Our point guard, Eric Bell, only had three points, but he did a good job getting the ball to the right people.”

With this win, Vidalia (28-4) will move on to the second round of the playoffs Tuesday.

“Hopefully we can keep playing as hard as we did tonight,” Sanders said. “If we do, I think we’ll have a good outcome.”