UNIONVILLE, Tenn. – The Community Viqueens (13-12, 4-4) wrapped up District 9-AA play on Tuesday with a 47-30 wire-to-wire win over Chapel Hill (15-11, 0-7) inside of The Roger Kent Brothers Gymnasium on senior night. 

The Viqueens are suddenly surging at the perfect time, winning four of their last five games with just one game remaining in the regular season. Savannah Pearson continued her strong run of performances with a team-high 12-point outing on four three-pointers while Anna Haskins and Alyssa White each finished with 10 points on the night for Community. As a team, the Viqueens made eight three-pointers while holding Chapel Hill to just one on the night.

For the Lady Rockets, Baeliy Stalnecker matched Pearson with 12 points of her own, but the stifling defense from the Viqueens prevented any of Stalnecker’s teammates from reaching double-figures. Sadie Smith was the closest, finishing with seven points for Chapel Hill.

After an extremely slow start in the comeback win at Summertown on Friday, Community made sure that it got off to a strong start this time, jumping out to a 16-4 lead by the end of the opening period. The Viqueens took an early 4-0 lead before Josie Brown connected on her only three-pointer of the night, and then Community responded with a 12-1 run to close the quarter. Haskins hit a three of her own along with Pearson for the hosts in the period.

The purple-and-gold managed to increase its advantage after outscoring the Lady Rockets, 9-6, in the second stanza, taking a 25-10 lead into the halftime locker room. Mattie Maxey scored five of her six points in the quarter to lead Community. 

Coming out for the second half, Chapel Hill would finally make a run of its own, spearheaded by Stalnecker’s relentless drive to the basket. In all, Stalnecker scored 11 of her 12 points in the third quarter alone, going a perfect 7-for-7 at the free throw line in the process. Sadie Smith tacked on four points for the Lady Rockets. Despite Pearson connecting on a pair of treys, the visitors managed to outscore Community, 17-11, in the third period to trim the lead to 36-27 heading into the final frame.

However, in the fourth quarter, Community tightened the screws defensively, holding the Lady Rockets to zero-made field goals in the final eight minutes and just three-made free throws. On the other end, the Viqueens found one triple from Pearson, Haskins, and Brooklyn Yoes, as well as two points from White to outscore Chapel Hill, 11-3, in the final period of play and improve to 4-4 in the district.

The Viqueens now sit in third place, a half-game ahead of Summertown with the Lady Eagles still to play Cascade on Friday. If Summertown wins, that would induce a coin toss between Summertown and Community for the No. 3 seed in the upcoming District 9-AA Tournament due to the fact that the two teams would be level to each other in each of the preceding tiebreakers. If Cascade wins, Community would then be locked in as the No. 3 seed and would take on Loretto in the District 9-AA semifinals at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, in Bell Buckle. If Summertown wins against Cascade and also wins the ensuing coin toss, the Viqueens would fall to the No. 4 seed and would host No. 5 seed Chapel Hill again on Monday, Feb. 16 at 6:00 p.m. in a play-in game for the right to take on No. 1 seed Cascade.

The Viqueens improve to 13-12 overall. Community closes out the regular season with a non-district trek to Clay County on Friday night with tip-off scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

COMMUNITY: S. Pearson 12 (4), A. Haskins 10 (2), A. White 10, M. Maxey 6 (1), B. Yoes 5 (1), S. Flannagan 2, M. Hill 2.

CHAPEL HILL: B. Stalnecker 12, S. Smith 7, S. Borba 3, J. Brown 3 (1), A. Duvall 3, A. Dillon 2.