Kaleb Kelso scores the first points of the game for the Champions. Kelso had 23 points for Cascade. (Post Photo by Rickey Clardy)
By RICKEY CLARDY
Sports Writer
UNIONVILLE —The Community Vikings had runs of 10 and 12 points in their game against the Cascade Champions Tuesday night, but the Champs were able to overcome the Viking hot streaks with a balanced scoring attack as four Champions hit double figures in Cascade’s 82-74 win over the Vikings in a District 9-2A and intra-county matchup.
With Cooper McElroy and Tristan Billings each scoring five points, Cascade (10-7, 1-1) jumped out to an 18-9 lead with 2:04 left in the opening quarter. Charlie Haskins scored seven points for Community (11-7, 0-2) as the Vikings scored the final 10 points to take a 19-18 lead to the second quarter.
Two free throws by Haskins to start the quarter gave the Vikings a 12-0 run and a 21-18 lead.
Haskins had 10 points in the high-scoring quarter for the Vikings, but McElroy scored nine points while Kaleb Kelso had eight points and Ryder Pilkington added five as the Champions retook the lead with a 25-point quarter and went into the break with a 43-39 lead.
Kelso, McElroy,
Charlie Haskins of the Vikings is fouled while going up for a shot. Haskins had 32 points for Community. (Post Photo by Rickey Clardy)
and Henry Stone each scored five points for the Champions in the third quarter as Cascade took its biggest lead at 58-48 with 4:03 left.
But with Haskins scoring 12 points and Josh Powers adding six for the Vikings, Community went on its second double-digit run by scoring 10 points to tie the game at 58-58 with 54 seconds left.
The Champs went into the final quarter with a 62-60 advantage.
Kelso scored six points and Stone had five in the quarter as the Champs held on to their lead.
Jaxson Williams had five points for the Vikings as Community was able to whittle the Champion lead to 76-71 with 47 seconds left, but Cascade connected on six free throws the rest of the way to maintain its lead and square up its district mark to 1-1.
“A win on the road is a win on the road,” Coach Doug Worsley of the Champions said.
“You’d rather not give up 10-0 and 12-0 runs. But that’s the nature of basketball. Basketball is a game of runs. You‘ve got to withstand the runs and answer. I was proud of the guys that they answered each run,” Worsley added.
“Credit to them, Coach Worsley does a great job and they’ve got some players that have played in these big games before,” Coach Hunter Ferrell of the Vikings said.
“You can kind of tell. They never really wavered when things were going well or things were going poorly. They stayed the course and always had an answer for us,” Ferrell added.
“Credit to our guys. We went on runs and made it a game, but we couldn’t make the plays that we needed to really get over that hump,” Ferrell said.
Kelso and McElroy each had 23 points to lead the Champions in the scoring column, while Stone netted 14 points and Pilkington had 13.
Haskins had a game-high 32 points for the Vikings while Powers added 10.
The Champions were 19-of-29 at the free throw line while the Vikings were 21-of-25.
It was the first ‘Battle of Bedford’ matchup for both coaches in their first seasons at their respective schools.
“This is my first taste of the ‘Battle of Bedford,’ round one,” Worsley said.
“You can tell the kids really get into it and so do the parents and fans,” Worsley added.
“It’s a wonderful experience. Packed gymnasium. It was a great atmosphere. Who wouldn’t want to play in that?”
“It’s a fun game, it’s a fun environment,” Ferrell said. “It was a phenomenal crowd. Our fans were great, students were great. It was a phenomenal environment.”
“Just frustrated we couldn’t give them the result they wanted,” Ferrell added.
The Champs travel to Forrest and the Vikings entertain Loretto as both teams return to district action Friday night in 7:30 p.m. contests.
Cascade 18 25 19 20 — 82
Community 19 20 21 14 — 74
Cascade: Kaleb Kelso 23, Cooper McElroy 23, Henry Stone 14, Ryder Pilkington 13, Tyler Rogers, Tristan Billings 6, Tyler Barrett 3, Jaxon Gulick, Noah Watson.
Community: Charlie Haskins 32, Josh Powers 10, Johnathan Lawwell 7, Andrew Tocchio 6, Jaxson Williams 5, Zach Leathers 5, Karson Boyce 4, Masyn Hill 3, Maddux Thompson 2, Logan Reed.
3-Point goals: Cascade: (7): Kelso 3, McElroy 3, Stone; Community (5): Haskins, Lawwell, Williams, Leathers, Hill.
Halftime score: Cascade 43, Community 39.