Choctaw cruises in Indian Shootout win over FWB (SLIDESHOW, VIDEO)

FORT WALTON BEACH – There is nothing anybody wearing the green of Choctawhatchee enjoys more than a victory over the Fort Walton Beach Vikings.

View a slideshow from the game »

Tuesday night was no exception as the host Indians exploded in the second half to earn a 71-46 win over the arch-rival Vikings to move to 2-0 in the Indian Shootout at Choctawhatchee.

The Indians (7-2) had 11 of their 15 players score, but Thomas Clay led the way with 11 points – all of which came in the first three quarters.

After building a 30-20 lead at the half, the Indians took over in the second half, as the Indians came out and took it to their cross-town rivals, outscoring the Vikings (4-5) 41-26 in the second half to seal the win.

When asked what changed at the half, Choctaw coach Andy Thigpen’s answer was simple: “Intensity level.”

“The guys decided they wanted to play and when they want to play, they’re a very good ball team,” Thigpen said. “We just need to bring that intensity level for four quarters. We show spurts of it, but we need to get there.

“Our goal is to play four quarters,” he said. “If we can play four quarters of basketball we can wear teams down.”

Jonathan Brassell scored nine points for Choctaw on three 3-pointers and Mikal Rodgers and Justin Ware each scored nine as well. But the Indians saved their best for last, outscoring the Vikings 28-18 in the final quarter.

“It feels awesome because it’s a rivalry game and we beat them by a lot,” Clay said.

“We just turned it up, built the intensity up, and got in their head.”

Fort Walton Beach was led by Allen Wallace who finished with 15 points on the night, most of which came on seven fourth-quarter free throws. Rece Drake finished with 11 points for the Vikings.

“You got to give all the credit to them,” Fort Walton Beach coach John Lavin said. “They’re very athletic, a lot more athletic than we are. We got to realize our limitations and even still, we think we have a chance to compete with anybody, but we’re going to need to own the fundamentals a little bit.

“We’ll find out a lot about (our team)," Lavin said. "We're playing an early game (Wednesdsay) at five o’clock, so we better learn how to deal with pressure in about 20 hours.”

Fort Walton Beach faces P.K. Yonge at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Niceville will play Pine Forest at 7 p.m. and Choctaw will host Navarre at 8 p.m. All games are at Choctawhatchee.

Follow Pat Flynn on Twitter: @PatFnwfdn