PULASKI - In their last four games against the Giles County Lady Bobcats, the Community Viqueens played down to the wire in all of the games, but could not claim a win in any of the contests.

That statistic changed after Tuesday night.

Community (10-10, 5-4 D12AA) used a late third-quarter run to take the lead for good and held on for a 48-43 win over the Lady Bobcats in a District 12-AA basketball matchup.

"It was not easy," Coach Cody Pierce of the Viqueens said. "We've lost four straight to them before tonight and we knew we needed to get over that hump."

"We found a way to do it finally," Pierce added.

M. J. Simmons scored nine points as the Viqueens trailed for most of the opening quarter. But a 7-0 run to end the quarter gave Community its first lead and a 13-10 advantage heading to the second quarter.

With the help of several Viqueen turnovers, the Lady Bobcats went on a 7-0 run to take a 22-17 lead with 2:56 left in the quarter.

Simmons netted six points as Community battled back and trailed 24-21 at halftime.

"Turnovers were killing us in the first half," Pierce said. "We knew if we just took care of the ball, we were going to be fine defensively."

The Viqueens used their patience on offense and a stingy defense to gain the lead in the third quarter.

Community held the Lady Bobcats scoreless for the final 3:48 of the quarter. Meanwhile, Simmons netted seven points as the Viqueens erased a 32-27 Giles County lead by scoring the final eight points and took a 35-32 advantage to the final quarter.

Simmons had seven points and Breanna Whitaker added four as the Viqueens jumped out to a 41-34 lead with 3:53 to play. Despite Simmons picking up her fourth foul and spending some time on the bench, Community held on to its lead down the stretch. The Lady Bobcats got within four but could not get closer as the Viqueens took the district win.

Simmons had 29 points to lead the Viqueens.

Hanna Hill had 18 points and Ari Howard added 14 for Giles County.

The Viqueens were only 11-23 at the free throw line while the Lady Bobcats were 11-of-15.

"The bench did great tonight," Pierce said. "Shelby (Cawthon) and Addison (Brothers) did a great job plugging in some minutes when we needed them."

"We got in foul trouble, but they did a good job and we still ran our offense and still played solid defense," Pierce added.

Community concludes regular season and district play with a 6 p.m. game at Central Magnet Friday night in a matchup with implications in the final district standings.

Community 13 8 14 13 - 48

Giles Co. 10 14 8 11 - 43

Community: M. J. Simmons 29, Breanna Whitaker 6, Brianna Beech 5, Zoey Dixon 4, Haley Mitchell 2, Shelby Cawthon 2, Addison Brothers.

Giles Co.: Hanna Hill 18, Ari Howard 14, Kylie Hendricks 5, Teondra Williams 4, Maddie White 2, Amya Coffey, Elizabeth Cox, Kataiah Dudley.

3-Point goals: Community (1): Dixon; Giles Co. (2): Howard 2.

Halftime score: Giles Co. 24, Community 21.