Viqueen juniors downed in OT

Community Junior High faced off with Middle Tennessee Christian for the third time this season, and for the second time in the three outings, fell in overtime 55-46 in Murfreesboro on Monday.

The Viqueens (4-7) trailed the majority of the game as they found themselves on the wrong end of 13-6 and 25-16 scores after the first two periods.

The Lady Cougars (14-2) were held to nine points in the third quarter while the Viqueens lit up the scoreboard with 16 to pull to within 34-32 going into the final minutes of play.

"The kids really impressed me with the way they hung in there tonight," Community coach Kevin Hinson said. "We had a little bit of a slow start offensively, but the girls really picked up the pace defensively to get back into the game."

Community trailed 44-41 when Kelsie Smith shook loose and buried a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to end regulation.

"We came back and made a big play there at the end, but we let them get the jump on us in overtime with a couple of mental letdowns in the transition game," Hinson said. "They broke loose on a couple of long passes off of the press that resulted in easy baskets and we were never able to recover.

"Still though, I am very pleased that the kids played their hearts out and never gave up. Despite the final outcome, they can hold their heads up. We had several kids step up tonight, and we scored the most points of the season for us in this game.

"The effort was definitely there. We were just not as deep as they were and they had fresher legs in the overtime period."

Smith led Community with 11 points. Jessica Lynch contributed 10.

The Viqueens take the rest of the week off and travel to Liberty on Monday night for a game at 6.