UNIONVILLE, Tenn. – The Community Vikings (12-7, 1-2) bounced back in a big way on Friday night to pick up Hunter Ferrell’s squad’s first District 9-AA win of the season over the reigning Class AA State Champions Loretto (7-8, 1-1), 55-51, inside of The Roger Kent Brothers Gymnasium.

The Vikings jumped out on the Mustangs early and often, setting the physical tone defensively while nailing three-pointers from the outside on offense after suffering a close rivalry loss on Tuesday.

“You could tell our guys were disappointed [after Tuesday],” said Ferrell, “We didn’t play as well as we are capable of playing, and Cascade obviously had a lot to do with that. We came in on Wednesday, and I was honest with them. I told them that we are not where the program needs to be in terms of what we need to do to be successful. It was a rough practice that day, but I think it was a good one and necessary. Thursday, they came in and were really competing and showing me that they were understanding that we needed to do some things differently and a lot better to give ourselves a chance to win against the best teams in our district.”

Charlie Haskins led the way with 17 points to close out the surging Mustangs late in the game, but it was the outside shooting from the Vikings to start that gave them the lead to hold on to at the end. 

Early on, Josh Powers opened the scoring with back-to-back triples, Andrew Tocchio hit a three, and the Vikings took a 13-6 lead at the end of the opening period. In the second quarter, Tocchio connected on two more triples to give the Vikings their largest lead of the night, 19-6, early in the period. Masyn Hill also hit his only three of the night, and the Vikings found themselves ahead, 30-22, at the intermission. 

Coming out of the halftime locker room, Powers connected on Community’s seventh three-pointer of the game up to that point, and the hosts’ lead ballooned back up to 12 points, 40-28, after a Johnathon Lawwell layup halfway through the third quarter. 

However, Loretto closed the final four minutes on a 9-1 run, capping it off with a three-pointer at the buzzer from Cooper Burleson to trim the lead to just four points, 41-37, heading into the final frame.

The Mustangs hit a pair of free throws to get within two, but then Haskins went on a personal 6-0 spurt to swell the hosts’ lead to 47-39 at the halfway point of the fourth. 

Loretto found a way to respond with a 6-0 spurt of their own, but then a Powers layup for his 11th point of the night followed by a Haskins layup and split free throws put the Vikings back up seven, 52-45, with just 1:10 remaining.

Nevertheless, Loretto continued to show their championship mettle, fighting back once again to trim the lead to just a single point after forcing back-to-back turnovers after Kylon Wilkerson scored his 14th point of the night on a spinning layup in the lane to close the Vikings’ lead to just 52-51 with 37.2 seconds left. 

Masyn Hill split a pair of free throws to give Loretto a chance to tie or take the lead, but then Mason Tidwell – who led all scorers with 20 points – found himself trapped along the baseline beore his pass was picked off by Tocchio at the top of the key. Tocchio was eventually fouled with 9.4 seconds remaining, and calmly sealed the win by connecting on his 11th and 12th point of the night at the line.

“We maybe let them get a little closer than we would have liked to win,” said Ferrell, “but the thing I was impressed with was the fact that we knew were going up against an extremely physical and well-coached team, and to play the game that we did and have that relatively comfortable lead for as long as we did really impressed me. You can tell your guys how physical a team is in practice and you just hope it translates to the game. For us to start 0-2 in the district and have the defending state champs coming into your building, it can be really easy to start hanging your heads a little. Instead, our guys responded and did the little things a lot better…I’m just really proud of their response and toughness to really buy into what we’re doing and trust each other, and ultimately finding a way to win against a really good team.”

The Vikings improve to 12-7 overall after picking up their first District 9-AA win of the season. Community travels to Chapel Hill for another district contest on Tuesday night.