Mattie Maxey of the Viqueens is fouled while going up for a shot. (Post Photo by Rickey Clardy)
By RICKEY CLARDY
Sports Writer
UNIONVILLE – The Community Viqueens overcame a sluggish start with a scoring splurge in the last two minutes of the second quarter to take a halftime lead, but a slew of missed shots from close range finally caught up to the Viqueens as the Grundy County Lady Jackets took a second half lead and held on to defeat Community 53-52 in a District 9-2A contest Wednesday night.
It was the first district game of the season for the Viqueens as the game was pushed back a night due to weather issues.
Both teams had trouble finding the basket in the opening quarter as the Viqueens scored their first points four minutes into the quarter.
Alyssa White finished with four points as the Lady Jackets took an 11-7 advantage to the second quarter.
Community started to heat up a bit in the quarter as six Community players tallied points.
A 3-pointer by Anna Haskins at the 2:03 mark gave the Viqueens their first lead at 21-20 as Community netted 11 points in a two-minute stretch, including six points from the free throw line.
Anna Haskins of the Viqueens drives down the lane and is fouled. (Post Photo by Rickey Clardy)
Haskins had 11 points as the Viqueens took a 27-24 lead to the intermission.
With White scoring the first five points of the second half, the Viqueens took their biggest lead at 32-24 with 6:55 remaining.
But the Lady Jackets fought back with seven consecutive points and used a 6-0 run at the end of the quarter, punctuated with a buzzer beater as Grundy County led 41-40 with one quarter to play.
The Viqueens took their final lead of the game as Mattie Maxey scored the first points of the fourth quarter, but the Lady Jackets quickly regained the lead. With shot after shot missing the mark from close range for Community, the Lady Jackets capitalized and increased their lead to 52-47 with 18 seconds left.
A two-pointer from Brailey Whitehead and a late trey from Taylar Wessner were not enough as Grundy County added a free throw and finished with the 1-point win.
Gracie Panter led the Lady Jackets with 18 points while Kassadee Crabtree added 12.
White had 16 points to lead the Viqueens while Haskins had 15.
The Viqueens were 16-of-23 at the charity stripe while Grundy County was 9-of-14.
“At the end of the day, we just didn’t finish the game,” Coach Cody Pierce of the Viqueens said. “We’ve just got to play better.”
“This is the time we’ve got to figure some things out. We missed a ton of layups,” Pierce added. “We’ll look to bounce back on our next district game next week.”
With a non-district home game against Central Magnet in jeopardy due to possible weather conditions on Friday night, Community will return to district play next Tuesday night at Cannon County.
Grundy Co. 11 13 17 12 — 53
Community 7 20 13 12 — 52
Grundy Co.: Gracie Panter 18, Kasadee Crabtree 12, Jaidys McDaniel 8, Elyce Rymer 8, Kallie Parson 2, Drew Cook 5, Torie Layne.
Community: Alyssa White 16, Anna Haskins 15, Taylar Wessner 5, Mattie Maxey 5, Brooklyn Yoes, Brailey Whitehead 9, Savannah Pearson 1, Sara Flannagan 1.
3-Point goals: Community (2): Haskins, Wessner.
Halftime score: Community 27, Grundy Co. 24.
