In front of a standing-room-only crowd at The Fort on Friday night, the Vikings pulled off another second-half comeback to defeat crosstown rival Choctaw 55-52, avenging an earlier loss while potentially derailing the Indians’ playoff aspirations.

• Like their game earlier this week against Milton, Fort Walton had to dig themselves out of a hole.

Choctaw started strong, racing out to an 8-0 run.

Fort Walton didn’t score until Xy Childres hit a 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the first quarter. Childres grabbed a miss by Kedar Washington and converted it to a basket, then hit another 3-pointer just before the quarter ended to tie the game at 8.

Both teams traded buckets to begin the second quarter, with Michael Collins and Memphis DeLong each hitting shots. Dylan Matern then hit a 3-pointer that sparked a 13-0 Choctaw run where everything went the Indians’ way.

• Fort Walton went a full seven minutes without scoring. Christian Coley hit a bucket just before halftime to stop the bleeding, sending both teams to the locker room with Choctaw ahead 23-12.

The Indians opened the second half with a Camry Johnson bucket to extend the lead to 13. Tuesday’s hero Rodric Starks got a basket and sparked a 5-0 Fort Walton run.

However, a foul on Sean Simon sent Reece Jones to the line for Choctaw, and he sank both free throws to push the Indians’ lead back to double digits. The game remained 28-18 for a stretch until Collins hit two free throws to extend Choctaw’s lead to 12. Coley then hit a 3-pointer, and Choctaw added four more points to lead 34-25.

• But just before the quarter ended, Childres hit a buzzer-beater 3-pointer that cut the Indians’ lead to six heading into the fourth.

The fourth quarter opened with an and-one from Coley that cut Choctaw’s lead to one possession. However, Johnson hit a bucket to bump the lead back to five. Childres responded with another 3-pointer to cut Choctaw’s lead to 36-34. Jones hit a basket to make it 38-34, then Childres hit another 3-pointer to cut the Indians’ lead to one.

Starks came up with a steal and was fouled, ensuring the Vikings retained possession. Following a charge by Coley, Choctaw got possession and Jones hit a shot to make it 40-37. Simon scored, but Washington sank a 3-pointer that bumped the Indians’ lead back to five.

• Fort Walton responded with a DeLong bucket, but Collins was fouled and sank both free throws. Starks responded with a basket, then a Jones miss was rebounded by DeLong. A Starks blocked shot that went out of bounds ensured Fort Walton would retain possession.

Childres then hit a bucket to tie the game. After a Washington miss, Childres grabbed the rebound and got it to Starks, who hit a basket to give the Vikings their first lead of the night at 47-45. Coley was fouled and sank both free throws to push Fort Walton’s lead to four.

With 1:08 left, Collins had an and-one that cut Fort Walton’s lead to one. But Coley responded with a layup to push the lead back to three. A Starks free throw made it four, and two Childres free throws appeared to ice the game.

• Fort Walton was charged a technical foul, which sent Washington to the line. He hit both free throws, and a Matern 3-pointer was airballed and rebounded by Simon as the clock ran out and the Vikings appeared to have won.

But the game wasn’t over yet. There were still .4 seconds left on the clock, and technicals were handed out.

First, one on Choctaw sent Coley to the line, where he hit one free throw. Then one was called on the Vikings in response to a premature celebration by a rowdy Fort Walton student section. This sent Washington to the line, where he hit both free throws, and gave Choctaw one more possession to try and tie it and send the game to overtime.

But an inbound was stolen by Simon, securing a 55-52 win for the Vikings.

Childres set the pace with a season-high 21 points, supported by Coley’s 13 points and Starks’ 10 points. Simon scored seven points and DeLong added four.

“It’s a rivalry game. It doesn’t matter what the record is, it’s been going on for a long time, so I was telling my guys, it doesn’t matter what our records are, everyone’s going to have high emotion, so we had to dig down and come back,” Vikings coach Chris Carswell said.

“They didn’t give up. They kept fighting. They could’ve given up. They could’ve held their heads, but they stuck with it,” Carswell said.

Fort Walton (16-7) will host Bay on Saturday, then conclude their regular season at home against Crestview on Tuesday.

Choctaw (9-12) will play at Niceville on Monday, then at Gulf Breeze on Thursday, before wrapping up their regular season at Mosley on Friday.