CERRO GORDO - Last season, the West Columbus High boys basketball team lost three of its first four Southeastern 1A-2A Conference games before battling back to finish runnerup in the conference race and then winning the conference tournament.

On Friday night, the Vikings gave indication of a much better start in conference play by battering defending regular-season champion Fairmont 75-54 at the WCHS gym.

Guard Mikey Bilal paced the Viking effort with 18 points, 10 rebounds and nine steals.

The win put the Viking season record at 5-1 going into tonight’s non-conference home game against neighboring rival South Columbus.

“It’s good to open conference with a win,” said Viking coach Michael Powell. “Last year we had kind of struggle getting started in the conference.

“Fairmont isn’t as strong as last year, but our guys played pretty well tonight. It wasn’t always pretty but it was a win.”

The Vikings held a 34-25 lead at the half before going on a 30-17 run in the third quarter. Powell cleared his bench in the third quarter as WCHS improved its record to 5-1.

Travis Leggett had 14 points for the Vikings, followed by Chaz Everette with 13 and Stacy Snowten with 12.

The Vikings extended their winning streak to four.

Michael Bass led Fairmont scorers with 12 points and Powell had 11.

In the girls game, Fairmont stayed unbeaten by posting a 68-17 victory over the Lady Vikings.

West Columbus, which had two starters sitting out the game due to disciplinary reasons, got five points from Brittany Stephens and four from Ronica Thompson.

The Lady Vikings are now 1-5, including losses in their last four games.

West Columbus will play host to South Columbus tonight in non-conference play before resuming its Southeastern Conference schedule on Tuesday against the West Bladen Knights at Dublin.

WCHS will close out its pre-holiday schedule on Dec. 15 when it travels to play Red Springs.

BOYS GAME

FAIRMONT (54): Bass 12, Powell 11, Myers 8, Hardin 7, Parker 6, Poole 4, Douglas 3, Brown 2.

WEST COLUMBUS (75): Bilal 18, Leggett 14, Everette 13 Snowten 12, Hope 5, Smith 4, Hayes 2, Wilder 2, Johnson 1.