Bulldogs control Vikings in 2nd half

CORNERSVILLE -- It was not the start to the season Community hoped for in a 67-45 road loss to Cornersville, but the Vikings showed glimpses of a positive future for their program. The game was closer than the final score indicates despite the presence of four freshmen on the floor for a majority of the game.

The Vikes opened the game by scoring the first five points but were unable to keep the pace as they found themselves down 15-7 going into the second stanza.

Cody Pierce scored five points in a fast-paced second period and the Vikings regained the lead before the Bulldogs finished the half strong to lead 22-18 at the break.

"Not a bad start," Community coach Jace Bryant said. "We played pretty good defense in the early going but we had some breakdowns in the closing minutes to let them off the hook. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the first half of play out of our guys."

The squads battled evenly throughout the third frame and Community cut the lead to just one point with under three minutes remaining before the Bulldogs' Josh Pope and Dillon Bean drained three pointers back-to-back unanswered by the visitors to close out a 41-35 lead for the home team.

The wheels fell completely off for the Vikings in the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs went off offensively to score 26 points to win the game going away.

Josh Pope scorched the nets for 13 points in the period and Cornersville created turnover after turnover by the young Viking ball handlers with a trapping defense to close it out.

"I told the kids after the game that the effort is where we want it to be, we just aren't very good at the basketball part of it yet," Bryant said. "They knew that we only had two experienced players and they trapped Cody (Pierce) all night to force the ball out of his hands and made our freshmen handle the ball.

"We missed way too many easy shots and threw the ball around a lot more than we need to if we are going to be competitive but we can coach that. What we can't coach is effort. This group will get better because they go all out every minute. We can build off of that kind of work ethic."

Pope earned game-high honors for Cornersville with 24 points, 12 in the fourth quarter.

Marcel Brown pitched in with 15. The Bulldogs had seven 3-pointers and finished with 14-of-26 free throw attempts.

Jake Leverette led the Purple and Gold with 13. Pierce added 11.

Community hit 10-of-25 from the line.

The Vikings travel to Richland on Friday. Game time is to be announced.