Going into Tuesday night, the Community R-6 girls had won five straight conference titles and tried hard to make it six.

Community R-6 vs Cairo Photo Gallery

The Lady Trojans were as close as two points with less than a minute left against Class 2 No. 3 Cairo, who stayed undefeated in conference and secured a title after defeating Community 52-47 in Laddonia. Seniors Sarah Angel, Kayla Jett and Olivia Kuda combined for 38 Lady Trojan points.

“This matchup started about five years ago as we’ve been battling conference titles against Cairo for the last five years,” head coach Bob Curtis said. “Over there (in a 50-24 loss in Cairo), they really walked away in the fourth quarter. Tonight, it didn’t happen. We stayed right there. I wished they would’ve pulled it out for them and for my seniors, but the effort was there.”

Curtis said each of his seniors had standout performances against “probably the best team we’ve played this year,” which is encouraging going into districts despite the game being a loss. Angel led with 17 points, five assists and two 3-pointers, Jett followed with 13 points and four 3-pointers, and Olivia Kuda had eight points and 10 rebounds.

Angel’s second 3-pointer is the field goal that brought the Lady Trojans (20-5, 8-2 CAC) within two points at 49-47 after Kuda juked Cairo’s 6-foot-2 Macie Harman for a bucket inside. They each took turns making key plays as

Community fought to trail 44-41 after being down 40-31 in the fourth quarter. Kuda grabbed her fair share of boards from Harman, who finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks, Angel sank a floater and then Jett knocked down her fourth 3-pointer.

“They really played hard and played well and gave us a chance,” Curtis said. “There is not much more I can say about them other than we’re ready to get into districts and start the new season.”

Community was ahead much of the first half, leading 15-10 after the first quarter and staying ahead until Cairo (22-3, 9-0 CAC) tied the contest at 22 with two minutes left until halftime. After being tied at 24 at halftime, Cairo took the advantage partly because of the 11 bench points from Olivia Cross as she, Harman and Avery Martin each led the Lady Bearcats with 11 points.

Cairo was able to affect Community with more traps and turnovers in the second half, which led to the Lady Trojans having to scramble defending in transition. Curtis said Cairo is a good free-throw shooting team so seeing the Lady Bearcats go to the line more was concerning.

“They got the foul line quite a bit in transition,” Curtis said. “There were a couple times we didn’t get back then they got fouled and got to the line. We can’t guard those. We’ve got to get back, and we’ve got to make them take contested jumpers. We did that well most of the night, but in the second half, we got a little tired.”

Community goes into the Class 1 District 10 Tournament in Madison with a first-round bye as the Lady Trojans are the No. 1 seed. Their first game is scheduled to be 5:30 p.m. Feb. 23 against the winner of Glasgow and Madison.

Four days before Tuesday’s game, the Lady Trojans survived a nailbiter at conference foe Glasgow 46-43 so Curtis said the tournament field will present a challenge.

“There’s no doubt there’s some other good talent in the tournament,” Curtis said. “Glasgow’s the 4 seed and we survived them the other night. Higbee and Wellsville have had nice seasons. It will be a tough week, but I liked the way my team played tonight. If this shows up next week, I really like how it might turn out.”