The Community Vikings opened District 9-AA play in style with a 72-52 home blowout win over cross-county rival Cascade in the newest edition of the “Battle of Bedford” on Friday night.

            Coming into the contest, Community and head coach Robbie Davis were in the middle of a five-game losing streak to the three-time defending district champions in Cascade and head coach Chris Lawson.

            Led by junior forward Landon Lovvorn’s 21 points, senior guard Maki Fleming’s 19 points, and junior forward Austin Stickler’s 15 points, the Vikings never trailed. The home side led by double digits for the entire night after the first quarter as they continuously outworked a veteren-laden Cascade side.

            Only senior forward Zach Crosslin reached double figures for the Champions. He had another near double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds while being one of the only bright spots for Cascade.

            Even in that first quarter, Community came out like gangbusters, beating Cascade down the floor on nearly every possession as they burst out to a 16-3 lead before the visitors even knew what had happened.

         This all happened despite Chris Lawson tinkering with the starting lineup, moving the team’s leading scorer in senior Isaac McElroy to the bench and starting sophomore Tyler Rodgers following the 23-point home loss to Cannon County in search of some extra energy.

            McElroy was quickly sent to the scorer’s table to try and counter the Vikings aggressive perimeter defense, but he promptly missed his first two shot attempts. Community ended a dominant opening frame up 21-8, but Cascade felt lucky to be down only 13.

            As the first half continued, Community continued to get any look they wanted to on offense as Lovvorn and Fleming finished the first half with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Cascade actually outscored the Vikings 19-16 in the second quarter thanks to the activity of Zach Crosslin and senior reserve guard Logan Pulley, going into the locker room only down by ten points, 37-27.

            As the second half began, Community quickly built their lead back up to 17 before Chris Lawson countered with yet another lineup change and brought in a freshman big man, Brady Lewis, to try and find some sort of spark down low.

         Lewis, despite not playing in the first half, finished second on the team in scoring with nine points, but more importantly helped defensively to limit the Vikings to one shot per possession.

            Despite a mini surge from Cascade, including cutting the lead to as close as 11 at one point, the Vikings closed the third period strong, taking a 51-39 lead over the visitors into the final frame.

            The Champion faithful attempted to will some fight into their side as the fourth quarter began, but the younger lineup that was in for the majority of the third quarter started to run out of gas as Community’s Stickler took full advantage. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half with most of them coming in the final eight minutes.

          Community’s lead ballooned back up to 17 as the quarter went on, and eventually ended with a 72-52 final score.

            The Vikings improve to 7-9 (1-0) on the season and will travel to Mt. Pleasant on Tuesday night to take on the Tigers in what could be a potential regional tournament matchup later on down the line.

            Cascade falls to 5-12 (0-2) on the season. With eight seniors on the roster, the Champions have some soul-searching to do before district play resumes if they want to win a fourth consecutive district title in the Chris Lawson era.

         However, before they get the chance to turn their district record around, they host the Eagleville Eagles in a non-district matchup on Tuesday. That matchup will air live on WZNG radio, The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400, beginning at 5:45 p.m.