VALDOSTA – It didn’t come easy, but for the first time since 2015, the Lowndes Vikings have advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.

The North Paulding Wolfpack (6-23) hung around for the first half, but the Vikings opened the game up in the second half to win 67-39 Wednesday night.

“There were some jitters,” Lowndes head coach Reshon Benjamin said after the game. “But once we got to playing how we play – getting back in character by playing fast, transition buckets and great defense – it was almost like riding the bike, we got back pedaling.”

Indeed, any time the Vikings made plays on defense, it often led to points on the other end, either in transition or in the half court. And who else would benefit from that than senior guards Aaron and JJ Williams and junior forward Marcus Black.

The trio combined for 50 of the Vikings’ 67 points Wednesday, forcing steals and beating the Wolfpack in transition for easy buckets. 

Black led the way with a season-high 24 points, several coming on highlight dunks that ignited the home crowd.

“He’s a fan favorite man, he’s exciting,” Benjamin said. “Whenever he gets airborne, it’s hard to guard him. So, he got the crowd into it, he got us energized and got us over some nerves.”

Black also gave the Vikings important production in the slower half court early.

With the second quarter starting with the Vikings in a tight 13-12 game, the production from Black was huge. He scored 10 of the Vikings’ 16 points in the quarter as they slowly built a lead.

Benjamin spoke on why the Vikings struggled to score in the half court early.

“They sat back in a zone and we didn’t attack,” Benjamin said. “We did a lot of standing around, passing it around instead of attacking the zone.”

But later in the game, especially late in the third quarter when JJ, the senior point guard returned from the bench being in foul trouble, the Vikings got the ball into the paint and good things followed. 

“I think in the third quarter and fourth we did a good job of getting a couple of ball swings and then we attacked. When we attacked, we put pressure on them and we were able to get easy dump off layups and kickout threes,” Benjamin said. 

The Vikings took a 29-22 lead into halftime and were able to put a little more distance between themselves and the Wolfpack in the first few minutes even with JJ on the bench. However, when he came off the bench, the Vikings really turned it up. 

JJ forced a couple of his five steals and a couple of layups later and the Vikings were up 15 going into the fourth quarter.

They Vikings kept their momentum going into the final quarter and quickly pushed the lead to 50-30 when JJ found Black in the paint for his 16th point.

Black had a huge fourth quarter trailing in transition or slipping baseline for sky-scraping dunks. Four of his ten fourth quarter points came with about three minutes left as he punctuated the Vikings’ victory with back-to-back dunks to push the lead to 30.

The second one was a soaring putback dunk over the heads of multiple Wolfpack defenders that had the Crimson Colosseum in a frenzy to win their first home playoff game in years.

Although the game ended in exciting fashion, it was the slow start that Benjamin was most concerned about going forward in the state playoffs.

“The higher you go; the air gets thinner,” Benjamin said. “So, the team you play in the next round you can’t wait a half to bring the energy. You have to come in ready and attack your opponent. So that’s what we’ll try to do and hopefully keep this streak alive.” 

JJ was the second leading scorer for the Vikings, scoring 14 points and adding eight assists. Aaron Williams added 12 and six with three steals, and senior big man JC Riley added eight points and 11 rebounds.

The Vikings move on to the Sweet Sixteen Saturday afternoon, hosting Norcross at 3:30 p.m.

 

Vikettes 66

Lady Blue Devils 56

The Vikettes used a group effort to get past their first-round matchup on Saturday, defeating the defending champion Marietta Blue Devils 66-56.

Four different Vikettes scored in double figures, but it was junior center Otaifo Esenabhalu who made the most impact on the game for either team. 

“They couldn’t stop her at all,” Vikettes head coach Antonia Tookes said. “She was huge, and her energy was trying to fuel the team. I kept telling them to go inside. If you went inside, it was money. She was ready to play tonight.”

“Big O” finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, but her defensive presence was also huge for the Vikettes as she swatted several shots and sent back would-be drivers all game.

Freshman guard for the Vikettes Kaci Demps led all players in scoring with 18. In a first quarter where Tookes said her team’s energy wasn’t there, Demps provided the spark, scoring 11 of the Vikettes first 18.

A lot of Demps’ damage was done in transition, where the Vikettes have been successful all season. But with Otaifo scoring so well on the block, Tookes’ message to her team offensively was to slow it down and feed the big.

“I think we did pretty good at scoring every time we got set up and waited patiently. But when we rushed it sometimes, we didn’t. I thought people were trying to take threes, trying to put the nail in the coffin, but if we would’ve just kept feeding Otaifo one of her twos could’ve been a three-point play.”

In the second quarter, the Lady Blue Devils hit a couple threes and then got behind the Vikettes in transition to take the lead at 25-24 with 3:40 remaining until halftime. 

But Esenabhalu made a couple plays finding a cutting Faith Johnson for a lay-up to retake the lead and then blocking a layup attempt on the other end that set up a fastbreak score for Amyah Espanol.

Esenabhalu and the Vikettes’ defense locked up and held the Lady Blue Devils scoreless for the rest of half as they pushed the lead to 33-25.

The third quarter belonged to “Big O”. She took over, going again and again to a drop-step left into a righty hook shot over Marietta’s Jamya Gambrell, who just didn’t have the length to contest it.

Like Tookes said, it seemed like every time it was money. 

Behind Esenabhalu’s scoring and her defense on the other end, the Vikettes slowly pushed the lead to double digits going into the fourth quarter.

The Vikettes successfully kept the Lady Blue Devils at arm’s length though the final quarter of play Saturday, going up by as much as 15 points. Over the final five minutes, 

Espanol, the Vikettes leading scorer this season added 15 points on Saturday. Faith Johnson was the other Vikette scorer in double figures with 12. 

With the win, the Vikettes improve to 20-7 and advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

They’ll play Archer (20-6) this Saturday at 2 p.m.