The Community Viqueens opened District 9-AA play with a 51-40 win over the Cascade Lady Champions in the "Battle of Bedford" on Friday night.
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The Community Viqueens opened district play with a 51-40 win over cross-town rival Cascade in the “Battle of Bedford” in Unionville on Friday night.
Sophomore guard Anna Haskins finished with 19 points, freshman center Alyssa White added 13, and Community handed the Lady Champs their second district loss in as many contests.
Cascade was led by junior guard Kaydence Miller, who hit four threes and finished with 12 points. Star sophomore guard Kaegan Young and junior forward Sophie Ray were held to just eight points apiece in an unusually rough shooting night, combining to go 7/24 from the field with Young making only one three.
The Lady Champs opened the contest with a strong first four minutes or so, jumping out to an early lead as they looked to rebound after the closely contested loss to Cannon County in their district opener.
Ray opened the game hitting her first four shots from the field as she scored all eight of her points in the first quarter. However, the Viqueens settled down on their home court, coming back to tie the game at 13 to end the opening frame.
The second period was closely contested as well with each team taking their time to find a good shot offensively each time down the floor. At one point, it felt like Cascade was going to start to pull away, but the Viqueens hung tough and managed to stick around once Cascade's sophomore forward Suzanna Crews went to the bench with two fouls.
Community promptly started going inside to the freshman White where she began to assert herself. Despite this, the Lady Champs went into the locker room with a slim 25-24 lead in a very entertaining first half.
To start the second half, Community, who came into Friday’s contest on a nine-game losing streak and a 3-12 record overall, tightened the screws defensively. Cascade was held scoreless for nearly six minutes to start the third quarter as Kaegan Young and Sophie Ray struggled to find good looks against the Viqueens’ zone defense.
Empowered by their defense, Community took the first double-digit lead of the game before Kaydence Miller and Young responded with a couple of triples, cutting the home team’s lead to 37-31 entering the final frame.
Cascade carried some of their momentum into the fourth quarter, opening with a quick 5-2 spurt to make it a 39-36 game with six minutes to play. Unfortunately for them, they would only score four points in those final six minutes as Community came out of the timeout and simply had more gas left in the tank than the visiting Lady Champs.
Ray and Young ended up playing all 32 minutes for Cascade, and the Viqueens used their depth off the bench to slowly wear them down in time for the fourth quarter in the 51-40 win.
Community improves to 4-12 and 1-0 in District 9-AA play. The Viqueens travel to Mt. Pleasant on Tuesday to take on the 4-12 Lady Tigers, who are a potential future regional tournament opponent, starting at 6:00 p.m.
Cascade falls to 5-12 on the year, including 0-2 in District 9-AA play. The Lady Champs will host Eagleville on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. It will air on WZNG radio, The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400, beginning at 5:45 p.m.
