Community's David Natale draws a foul from Cascade's Christian Edmondson. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

For much of the middle portion of Cascade's pivotal District 9-A meeting at Community it looked to be business as usual. The Champions hadn't lost to their cross-county rival since the fall of 2003.

Ryan Morton's sixth basket of the third quarter came with 22 seconds showing and pushed Cascade ahead 48-36.

That's when Viking Justin Stallings decided he had seen enough. The junior post answered Morton's bucket with a 3-pointer just a trio of ticks before the horn signaling the end of the third. Stallings didn't let off, scoring 12 points in the next 4:18, including the go-ahead basket with 4:33 left in the game.

When the smoke cleared, Community used their 18-1 rally to pull out a 63-56 victory and sent their crowd home with a smile.

"It's no secret we want the ball in Stallings' hands late in games," Viking coach Jace Bryant said. "We want to get the ball down on the block and him to go to the hole."

Bryant noted how his Vikings acclimated themselves to the Cascade full-court press and trimmed their turnovers from 13 in the first half to six the rest of the way.

"We ensured they were getting shots. When you get shots, you've got a chance to win," he said. "We've been harping all the last couple of weeks, until we start hitting some jumpers, we're not going to get many wins because everybody knows our strength is in the low post.

"We're going to have some open looks. We've just got to be able to knock them down and we did."

The Vikings improved their production on defense as well, holding their rivals to only one made field goal over the final 8:22, which was a layup by Cory Phillips with 2:18 to play.

"Our goal was to make sure (Jacob Carkuff) wasn't touching it and to make sure we got every rebound," Bryant said. "Luckily enough, Carkuff was under the weather a little, wasn't feeling 100 percent and that probably played a huge role."

"We're not going to make excuses," Cascade coach Charlie Pope said. "We lost tonight because we didn't defend well enough, we didn't get to the (foul) line enough and we didn't make shots when we had opportunities to make shots. You have to give credit where credit is due. You have to give credit to Community."

The Champs' comeback attempts were also rerouted by Community's production at the foul line. The victors were 12-for-13 in the fourth quarter and 20-for-23 for the game. Cascade made 12-of-17.

"When a team is making that kind of a statement at the free-throw line, they're going to be hard to beat," Pope said.

The outcome sets up a logjam in the middle of the district standings. Cascade and Community are both 5-6 with a game to play. Forrest is 5-5. If the Vikings (11-9) manage to take down the Rockets in Chapel Hill on Monday night, then there will be a three-way tie for third place and the coaches will have to flip to see who plays where on Feb. 12 in the opening round of the tournament.

Viking post Justin Stallings finds a path to the hoop around Champion Jacob Carkuff. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

"This win does a lot for our kids' confidence," Bryant said. "Nobody in that locker room had ever beaten Cascade."

"If we could have just won, we would have been in the driver's seat. Now we're in the passenger seat," said Pope, whose team travels to Middle Tennessee Christian on Tuesday night.

Stallings wound up with a game-high 19 points. David Natale came off the bench to net 13, including a perfect effort at the foul line, hitting eight shots in the clutch. Dustin White sank three 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.

Carkuff managed 14 points with half coming on a 7-of-9 showing on free throws. Morton totaled 13. Phillips had 10.

The first 9:27 contained four ties and three lead changes. The hosts were up 11-9 after a quarter.

Cascade (7-13) made the final five points of the first half to go ahead 32-21.