B

Coffee County’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams were back at Joe Frank Patch Gymnasium Friday night, welcoming Fayetteville City for a doubleheader.

Just as they had on the road on Nov. 25, the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders completed the sweep, winning 84-57 in the girls’ game and 59-42 in the boys’ matchup.

Coffee County (9-1 girls, 5-3 boys) remains at home to host the Santa Shootout tournament, which will be held this Friday through Sunday.

Lady Raiders battle back, break off in second half

Coffee County girls’ basketball found itself in a fight in the first half of Friday night’s game against Fayetteville City, trailing 32-29 at halftime. It was a different story in the second half, with the Lady Raiders pulling away to win by 27.

“Coming into this game, I’d been playing my freshmen a lot in the fourth period this year, but never with any varsity. It was all together. Going into tonight, I told myself I don’t care how much we get down, I’m putting two freshmen, two freshmen, two freshmen with three groups,” Coffee County coach Joe Pat Cope said. “So we didn’t play our starters at all the first half together. We played the first group with two freshmen, (Brylyn McAdams and Avery Pruitt), then we played the second with two freshmen and the third, so I gotta see which freshmen can come in and immediately adapt.”

Coffee County wasted no time getting its offense going as the third quarter got under way, jumping ahead quickly with 11 unanswered points to build a 40-32 lead. The Lady Raiders continued to push ahead from there, finishing the third quarter up 62-46.

The offense continued its second-half productivity in the fourth quarter, outscoring Fayetteville City 22-11 over the game’s remainder to seal the victory.

“I think defense definitely led to offense,” Brylyn McAdams said. “Once we started leveling up on defense, then it led to getting open shot opportunities on offense.”

Audri Patton led the way with 22 points. McAdams and Natalie Barnes followed with 14 points each. Kaysen Morgan added 12 points. Hayleigh Harris brought in five points, finishing just ahead of Maci Jackson and Adalyn Clark with four points each. Jenslee Nogodula came away with three points. Jaydee Nogodula, Avery Pruitt and Morgen Spears each had two points.

Raiders take care of business

Coffee County boys’ basketball was locked in a close battle through much of the first three quarters against Fayetteville City Friday evening. The fourth quarter was a different story, as the Red Raiders were able to break away on the way to the win.

“Just offensively, better ball movement in the second half. We hadn’t seen a lot of zone this year. We practiced against it some, but not enough and that’s on me,” Coffee County coach Andrew Taylor said of what helped lead to the victory. “Just better understanding of how we needed to attack it, better ball movement. We made shots and that always helps. It’s a make or miss game, so that was probably the biggest difference.”

Tied at 9-9 after the first quarter, the game remained close as the first half continued, with Coffee County taking a 24-22 lead into the break.

Fayetteville City was able to take control in the third quarter, at one point going up 36-30 on the Red Raiders. Coffee County began to climb back into it from there, finally retaking control on a 3-pointer from Kaysen Lowery to make it a 37-36 Red Raider lead ahead of the fourth quarter.

Tied at 39-39 early in the final quarter, Coffee County broke away with eight unanswered points. The Red Raiders did not let their lead slip away again and continued to push ahead to win by 17.

“We’ve just been going through it, working things out and it worked out tonight good,” Luke Campbell said. “We’re definitely trying to get the best record we can.”

MJ Rollman led the Coffee County offense with 21 points. Campbell followed with 15 points. Up next was Audie Nicoll with nine points, who finished just ahead of Lowery with eight points. Gabe Hambly, Jerrad Morgan and Braden Sargent all had two points each.