UNIONVILLE - The Community Vikings and Marshall County Tigers finished tied for first place in the District 12-AA regular season standings and split their two regular season games.

Tuesday night in the Region 6-AA semifinals, the Vikings won the tie-breaking game.

Community (21-7) led by two points before pulling away in the final three minutes to defeat the Tigers 58-48 and advance to the region championship.

Defense was at the forefront as the teams combined for only five fouls in the first half.

Evan Petrie scored the final seven points as the Vikings led 11-8 after one quarter.

Jackson Bailey scored five of the seven Community points in the second quarter as the Tigers kept the Vikings from settling into their offense.

The Vikings were scoreless for the last 3:38 as the Tigers took a 20-18 lead into halftime.

The Community offense got into gear in the second half.

Will Reed scored his first eight points of the game in the third quarter as the Vikings broke out of a tie with a 7-0 run to take a 31-24 lead with 4:09 remaining.

The Tigers rebounded by cutting the Viking lead to two before Community led 36-31 heading to the final quarter.

The teams continued to battle as the Vikings clung to a 42-40 lead with 3:31 left before the Community defense came up big with two steals on consecutive Tiger possessions.

While their defense made the big plays, the offense responded with a 6-0 run as the Vikings took a 48-40 lead with 2:09 left, forcing Marshall County to foul in the final minutes.

Reed was fouled four times and went 8-of-8 at the charity stripe to preserve the Viking lead.

Bailey also scored eight points, including a final dunk to add the exclamation mark as Community used a 12-of-12 performance from the line in the quarter to punch its ticket to the finals.

Bailey netted 19 points to lead three Vikings in double figures.

Petrie had 17 points while Reed added 16.

Devonte Davis and Jayden Hart each scored 15 points to lead the Tigers.

The Vikings were an outstanding 21-of-23 at the foul line while Marshall County was 2-of-5.

Community will travel to Creek Wood in a rematch of the Region 6-AA championship Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Creek Wood defeated Central Magnet 48-46 in the other region semifinal game.

The Vikings also clinched a spot in the sectional game for the second consecutive season.

***Coach Robbie Davis of the Vikings on Marshall County:

Hats off to Marshall County. You see why they were tied for the regular season championship. Those young men can play and we all know that Coach King is a great basketball coach. We knew he would have something prepared for us and he did. We were very passive because they were guarding us and making plays.

***Davis at halftime:

I told them this is 16 minutes and the loser goes home. You don't want to leave not playing our game. We've been here before. Take advantage of the things we do well.

***Davis on his team's 7-0 run in the third quarter:

We pushed the tempo. I told them if we'll push between the free throw lines and get numbers on the other end, we can attack this thing. Once we got that gap, I preached to our guys to win each quarter by two, get it to a minute, and make it a two-possession game.

***Davis on the fourth quarter:

We attacked the basket and got to the free throw line. That's our game. We really had some huge defensive stops to start that run. And we didn't turn it over in the second half.

***Davis on his team during the season:

They had a little chip on their shoulder. They played with a little bit of you're doubting us because of all the great players we lost last year. They really wanted to prove to everybody there's some hay in the barn still. There's still some fight left in the kids at Community. And here we are again.

***Davis on playing Creek Wood in the region finals:

It's a rematch of last year's final and now we've got to go to their gym. I'm hoping everybody in Unionville doesn't have anything to do Thursday night and can make the trip up there for the finals.

Marshall Co. 8 12 11 17 - 48

Community 11 7 18 22 - 58

Marshall Co.: Devonte Davis 15, Jayden Hart 15, Bryson Hughes 4, Omarion Arnold 4, Kaamil Hazel 3, Jaamil Hazel 5, Silas Hurt 2.

Community: Jackson Bailey 19, Evan Petrie 17, Will Reed 16, Stratton Lovvorn 6, Jacob Cooper, Maki Fleming.

3-Point goals: Marshall Co. (2): J. Hazel, K. Hazel; Community (1): Bailey.

Halftime score: Marshall Co. 20, Community 18.