ST. PAULS – The West Columbus Vikings saw a 42-19 halftime lead come unraveled in the final two quarters Tuesday night as they lost 69-66 in overtime to the host St. Pauls Bulldogs in a Southeastern 1A-2A Conference boys basketball game.

The loss broke a nine-game winning streak for the Vikings and knocked them out of their hold on first place in the conference race. The Vikings are now 8-2 in the conference and 15-3 overall. West Columbus and East Bladen are now tied for second place in the league race behind league-leading West Bladen (8-1). West Columbus will travel to play East Bladen Friday.

St. Pauls overcame its 23-point halftime deficit by scoring 24 points in the third quarter. At the end of regulation, the Bulldogs tied the score at 61. The Bulldogs outscored the Vikings 8-5 in overtime.

“We just didn’t get the job done,” said WCHS coach Michael Powell, whose team had posted a similar comeback victory over West Bladen a week earlier. “Our shots stopped falling, we got a couple of tough breaks and St. Pauls gained the momentum. It just goes to show that anything can happen on any given night.”

Chaz Everette led WCHS scorers with 24 points. Mikey Bilal had 20 and Chris Smith added 10.
T. Pone led the St. Pauls comeback and finished with 28 points. D. Shaw added 10.

In the girls game, St. Pauls survived an upset bid by West Columbus, holding on for a 50-46 win. Samantha Blackwell and Alex Ward had a big night for West Columbus, scoring 15 points and 14 points respectively.

Ray led St. Pauls scorers with 11 points.

GIRLS GAME

WEST COLUMBUS (46): Blackwell 15, Ward 14, Godwin 1, Thompson 7, Jones 4, Bradford 3, Memory 2.

ST. PAULS (50): Ray 11, Allsbrook 9, Pridgen 8, Locklear 7, Stephens 6, Champlain 4, Sinclair 3, Harris 2.

BOYS GAME

WEST COLUMBUS (66): Bilal 20, Smith 10, Everette 24, Johnson 2, Ward 5, Snowten 3.

ST. PAULS (69): Shaw 18, Pone 28, McRae 7, Bethea 6, Williams 4, Currie 4, McMillan 2