CHAPEL HILL — The Cascade Champions led the Community Vikings by 10 points with a minute to play in the third quarter before the Champions used a flurry of points in the final nine minutes to pull away and defeat the Vikings 65-40 in a semifinal game of the District 7-AA tournament Saturday night.
It was a game of runs as the teams looked to gain the upper hand in the opening quarter.
Led by five points each from Lucas Clanton and Isaac McElroy, Cascade (24-5) scored the first five points of the game to take the early lead.
Spurred by the return of Maki Fleming, the leader scorer from last year’s team who played his first game of the season after a football injury, Community (1-25) fought back and went on a 5-0 run of its own to tie the game.
“It’s great getting Maki back,” Coach Robbie Davis of the Vikings said. “He is the team leader and it’s been hard on him sitting all season and watching.”
“You could tell he has been out of game action awhile, but his fire and competitive nature are contagious,” Davis added.
The Champs rebounded with the next nine points and ended the quarter with a 16-7 lead.
With the help of six points from Jayden Gulick, the Champions scored the first eight points of the second quarter to finish a 10-0 run and took a 24-7 advantage with 4:44 left before the Vikings made a run of their own.
The Vikings scored the next seven points, punctuated by a trey from Fleming to pull Community within 10 at 24-14.
The Champions went into the intermission with a 28-16 lead.
“We were able to knock down a few shots and were able to do a good job on defense and get a few stops,” Coach Chris Lawson of the Champions said.
“We got up, and they would make a run and cut it back and it went that way for a little bit,” Lawson added.
Saebyn Burris led the Champs with five points in the third quarter as Cascade increased its lead to 34-20, but the Vikings would not go away. 
Fleming scored five points as Community cut the Champion lead to 34-24 before the Champs scored eight points in a one-minute span to increase the Cascade lead to 42-26 heading to the fourth quarter.            
Eight Champions scored in the quarter as Cascade put the game out of reach.  Thomas Gentry scored five points as the Champs steadily increased their lead to 26 in the closing seconds en route to punching their ticket to the district championship.
“We’ve been explosive all year in spurts. We got a big pickup from Tucker McGee off the bench who came in and knocked down a couple of 3’s,” Lawson said. 
“It was a total team effort. Everybody contributed tonight,” Lawson added.
Gentry had 12 points while Clanton added 10 to lead the Champions.
Landon Lovvorn netted nine points and Fleming had eight to lead the Vikings.
The Champions were 11-of-20 at the free throw line while the Vikings were 7-of-12.
“We had a ton of open looks and just couldn’t make shots,” Davis said. “Some of the shots in the first half were not shots that were a part of the game plan.”
“In the second half, we did a better job of taking shots, but we gave up way too many second-chance points,” Davis added.
Cascade will now play Grundy County Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. in the district championship at Forrest.  Grundy County defeated Forrest in the other semifinal game.
“Our guys are excited,” Lawson said.  “Tonight was an opportunity to get to host the first round of the region so that was a big deal.”
“It was also an opportunity to get back to the district finals,” Lawson added.
Community will take on host Forrest in the consolation contest Tuesday night at 6 p.m.          
        
Community    7    9  10  14 — 40
Cascade        16  12  14  23 — 65
 
Community: Landon Lovvorn 9, Maki Fleming 8, Jason Cullum 7, Jacob Flannagan 2, Ramon Hernandez 2, Cole Crockett 3, Corey Paterick 3, Moe Berman 3, Emery Smith 2, Dallas Grooms 1, Landon Berman, Jaxon Williams, Austin Stickler.
Cascade: Thomas Gentry 12, Lucas Clanton 10, Jackson Davis 9, Saebyn Burris 7, Jayden Gulick 6, Isaac McElroy 7, Tucker McGee 6, Sawyer Lovvorn 4, Zach Crosslin 2, Nick Harris 2, Eli Elliott, Henry Stone, Logan Pulley, Jacob Curl.
3-Point goals: Community (5): Fleming 2, Lovvorn, Paterick, M. Berman; Cascade (6): McGee 2, Gentry, Clanton, Davis, Gulick.
Halftime score: Cascade 28, Community 16.