Middle Champs' hot 3rd Qtr leads to BCT title

Cascade Middle broke open a tie ballgame in the third quarter of the Bedford County Tournament championship with 17 unanswered points to propel it past Community Middle 52-39 in Wartrace on Thursday night.

The contest was a rematch of last year's final that the Vikings won by seven points. The Champions were able to capture their first title since 2004 after placing second the last four straight years.

"It's very special," said Cascade coach Mike Edmondson, whose team went undefeated versus Bedford County foes. "These guys are such good kids. For them to have gone out with a loss would have been very disappointing. They were so intent on winning this thing. I had no doubt they would come ready to play after what happened last week because every time we got beat they responded by coming back and working harder.

"I told them it's the best junior high team I've ever coached in my 25 years of coaching junior high basketball."

It was the fourth victory for the Champions (19-2) over the Vikings (8-9) this season. The first three meetings were decided by a total of 15 points.

The final score was hardly indicative of the first 16 minutes of action Thursday.

Community and first-year coach Robbie Davis surprised Cascade by coming out in a triangle-and-two defense. The plan worked as the Vikings held the tournament top-seed scoreless in the first quarter and led 4-0.

Tournament most valuable player Jesse Barnes helped lead the Champs back in the second stanza as he poured in eight of his game-high 14 points to help the hosts to a 15-13 advantage at the break.

A pair of free throws by Viking Austin Carpenter knotted the game at 17-all midway through the third frame. The Unionville boys were only able to muster a single point by Luke Primm over the next 4:48.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Alex Hatchett capped off Cascade's 17-0 run. Blake Floyd's jumper found the bottom of the twine just as the third quarter horn sounded to make it 37-18.

"That's been kind of our trademark here in the last few games to have a big run in the third quarter," Edmondson said.

Community lit up the nets in the final period with four players scoring four points or more, including eight from Primm, en route to a 21-point output.

However, it wouldn't be enough as the Champs sank 6-of-10 free throws help to secure the win.

Hatchett finished with 13 points, including 5-for-6 at the charity stripe. Floyd pitched in with 10 points and Will Holt eight.

Primm headed the Viking scoring column with nine points. Blake Fanning followed with eight, while Quinn Frost and Taylor Paschal had seven apiece.