The Cascade Champions evened the season series against the visiting Community Vikings, 60-48, in Friday night's "Battle of Bedford."
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The Cascade Champions handled the Community Vikings after a strong fourth quarter in a 60-48 home district win in the “Battle of Bedford” on Friday night.
After an embarrassing 20-point loss in Unionville on January 5th, Cascade head coach Chris Lawson challenged his team to put forth more effort. His imploring has paid off over the last three weeks, as the Champions have looked like a completely different team, punctuated with Friday’s wire-to-wire victory against their cross-county rival.
Isaac McElroy led the way for Cascade with 17 points, Saebyn Burris chipped in 14 points, and Tucker McGee ended with 10 points.
Community only had one player reach double figures after having two players eclipse the 20-point mark in the first matchup, as Austin Stickler put in 18 points on the night. Maki Fleming and Landon Lovvorn, both of whom scored 21 points last time out against the Champions, were held to six and eight, respectively.
The defensive effort was apparent from the hosts almost immediately out of the gates, building a 17-9 lead in a first quarter that ignited the home crowd. It felt like almost every time a Community player touched the ball, someone wearing home white was right there to greet him.
The Vikings settled down in the second quarter as foul trouble for Cascade began to mount up, cutting into the lead to 29-26 with less than ten seconds to go in the half. Then, senior reserve guard Logan Pulley sent the home crowd into yet another frenzy as he hit a corner-three as the buzzer sounded to send his team into the halftime break up 32-26.
The Champs carried this momentum for the first seven minutes of the third quarter as their lead crept near double-digits. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the Vikings forced turnovers on Cascade’s final four possessions of the third quarter and found themselves trailing only 43-40 entering the final frame.
Instead of letting Community hang around in the fourth, the Champs hit the accelerator once more. They held the Vikings to eight points in the quarter while scoring 17 of their own, including seven straight from Tucker McGee to close out a massive home victory and improve to 36-20 against Community since 2001-02.
The Community Vikings fall to 8-12 (1-2) on the season, and are scheduled to host Harpeth Tuesday night on the first night of a back-to-back followed by hosting Cannon County on Wednesday, streaming LIVE and ON-DEMAND through the NFHS Network.
The Cascade Champions improve to 7-14 (2-3) and will travel to Chapel Hill to continue district play on Tuesday night, LIVE on WZNG The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 starting at 5:45 p.m.
