By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

CERRO GORDO – Veteran West Columbus High School basketball coach Michael Powell stood in the Viking dressing room following Tuesday night’s game and shrugged his shoulders.

For most of three quarters, he had watched as his team was rendered virtually helpless by the fifth-ranked 2A team in the state. Then in the final quarter, he watched his Vikings score 31 points and post probably the most impressive comeback victory in the school’s history.

“You look at how well we played at the end and then wonder how in the world we put ourselves in such a position to have make a comeback like that,” said Powell, whose Vikings avenged their only Southeastern 1A-2A Conference loss of the year. “It can be a crazy game.”

Trailing by 21 points with a less than minute left in the third quarter, the Stallions rode the senior leadership of Mikey Bilal and Chaz Everette and some strong off-the-bench play by Cortney Hayes, Justin Johnson and Quintez Ward, to rally to a 67-64 victory over the visiting West Bladen Knights.

West Columbus, which trailed 33-15 at halftime, improved to 7-1 in the conference and 13-2 overall.

The Vikings got their first lead of the game with just over a minute left on the clock when Bilal canned his second three pointer in less than 20 seconds for a 64-61 lead. A basket by Everett and foul shot by Johnson in the closing seconds helped secure the win. A 30-foot desperation attempt for a tying 3-pointer by West Bladen’s Drake Cruz missed the mark at the buzzer to complete the WCHS comeback surge.

Everette scored 27 points, hitting 9-of-11 attempts from the foul line. Bilal had 20 points, including five 3-pointers. Three of his 3-point shots came in the final quarter. Ward also hit a big 3-pointer in the final period.

“We made some good stops defensively and stepped up our rebounding late in the game,” Powell said. “When that started happening, our shots started falling also. The main thing we stressed was to keep playing hard.”

Trailing 50-29 with less than a minute left in the third quarter, Everette converted a three-point play with 49 seconds left and added a field goal with 19 seconds left. Johnson added a lay-up right before the buzzer to cut the Knight lead 50-36

Hayes opened the fourth quarter with big 3-pointer that further ignited the comeback. Midway through the period, Johnson and Hayes combined to make a midcourt steal that resulted in a big basket and East Bladen followed with two turnovers that the Vikings turned into quick scores.

With 1 minute, 22 seconds remaining, Bilal tied the score at 61 with a high-arcing 3-pointer and then converted a steal into an almost identical shot with 1:03 left to put WCHS ahead for good.

The loss put West Bladen’s conference record at 6-1 and season record at 15-2. It was the Knights’ first loss since its season opener with Whiteville.

The Knights of Coach Ken Cross got balanced scoring from Cruz with 16 points, Jamel Hall with 15, Matt McCall with 13 and Joe Gore with 10. The Knights jumped to a 12-3 lead and took a 19-5 advantage into the final quarter,

In the girls game, West Bladen rallied in the fourth quarter to take a 44-38 win over a strong effort by the Viking girls.

West Columbus, which got 17 points from Andrea Godwin and 19 rebounds from Alex Ward, led for most of three quarters before West Bladen prevailed down the stretch on the play of Keisha Gainey and Vanessa Jones.

West Columbus, which held one-point leads at halftime and at the end of the third quarter, saw its conference record dip to 0-8 and season record to 1-14.

Gainey was high scorer for West Bladen with 19 points and Jones had 11.

West Columbus played met South Columbus Wednesday night in non-conference play and it will entertain Red Springs on Friday.

GIRLS GAME

WEST BLADEN (44): Jones 11, Gainey 19,, Hall 9, Smith 1, Leach 4.

WEST COLUMBUS (38): Memory 3, Hanson 2, Stephens 3, Baker 2, Jones 2, Thompson 1, Bradford 2, Ward, Godwin 17.

BOYS GAME

WEST BLADEN (64): McCall 13, Williams 2, Drake 16, Hall 15, Gore 10, Fenwick 4, McKoy 4.
WEST COLUMBUS (67): Bilal 21, Johnson 5, Ward 3, Leggett 3, Hayes 7, Everette 27, Snowten 1.