County rivals got together for non-district basketball play in Manchester on Friday night.
First, the Coffee County Lady Raiders had to go without one of their starters, Channah Gannon, who is currently out of action with an ankle injury. The Tullahoma Lady Cats were fired up and ready to pull off an upset.
The Lady Raiders used their outstanding defense to grab a 26-16 lead at halftime before pulling out the 46-34 hard-fought win to improve to 8-1.
Olivia Vinson led the way for Coffee County with 17 points, followed by Jules Ferrell and Natalie Barnes with 9 each. Ava McIntosh had two 3-pointers to finish with 6. Vinson was named the Rooster 101.5 Player of the Game.
Nyjah Gibbs led Tullahoma with 10 points, and her teammates McLayne Bobo and Isabella Lidstrom had 8 points each as the Lady Cats fell to 3-3 on the season.
The Lady Raiders travel to Blackman on Dec. 8. Both Tullahoma teams travel to Lincoln County on the same night.
In boys’ play, Tullahoma took a 35-25 lead into the dressing room at halftime and, extended the advantage to 16 after the third quarter and went on to win 67-50.
Coffee County was led in scoring by Jackson Shemwell’s 16. The Raiders got 12 from Cooper Reed, 10 by Jayden Carter, and 9 from Brady Wright. Carter earned the Rooster 101.5 Player of the Game for his efforts on both ends of the floor.
The Wildcats got an outstanding night from Xavier Ferrell with 22 points, followed by DeAndre Jenkins with 10, as nine Tullahoma players scored in the game.
Coffee County will host Franklin County in a boys-only contest on Tuesday at 6:30 pm before traveling to Blackman.
