S

Coffee County basketball closed out the district portion of their schedule on Thursday night with the No. 2 ranked Lady Raiders winning in a 78-11 clobbering and the Red Raiders squeaking out a 40-39 win for a Senior Night sweep of Spring Hill in Manchester.

Senior Night

Throughout the night, senior members of the basketball team, training staff, dance team and cheer squad were honored in separate ceremonies before and between games.

Both basketball coaches were asked about their senior groups.

“I told them in the locker room that we would discuss that at the banquet,” said Lady Raider Coach Joe Pat Cope. “We still have another whole month of basketball left and we have to stay focussed and prepare every night.”

“They’re a hard-working group,” Coach Andrew Taylor said of his seniors. “They’ve had a lot of adversity and they’ve persevered. We’ve played really well in these last few games, so hopefully we can take that into the tournament.”

Coffee County Lady Raiders: 78, Spring Hill Lady Raiders: 11

With the Regular District Championship already locked up, the Coffee County Lady Raiders were eyeing an undefeated record against district opponents with a Senior Night win over Spring Hill.

The now eight-time defending District Champions made quick work of Spring Hill, going on an 8-0 run in the first minute of play before piling up a 27-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Coffee County’s defense kept the basket sealed tight through the first three quarters, holding Spring Hill without a field goal in the first 24 minutes of game time and shutting them out completely in the middle two quarters.

Senior and Southern Indiana signee Channah Gannon paced the Lady Raiders in scoring for the 12th time this season with a 20-point performance, including 14 points in the first quarter alone.

Led by double-digit scoring performances from Audri Patton and Ella Arnold, the Lady Raider bench unit would continue to keep the game well out of reach for the visitors, allowing only nine points and three total field goals in the fourth quarter to seal a 78-11 victory and an undefeated record in 4A District 9.

“I thought we were really active tonight,” Coach Joe Pat Cope said of his team. “We had good hands in the passing lanes. Holding a team to no field goals in three quarters is just unheard of.”

Despite clinching an eighth consecutive Regular Season Championship and having great odds to repeat in the tournament, Coach Cope knows that greater things lie ahead for his squad.

“I’m proud, that makes it eight in a row now,” he said. “But we’re not going to be satisfied until we’re in Murfreesboro playing for a gold ball.”

The Lady Raiders end the regular season with a 28-0 overall record and a 10-0 mark in district play.

Spring Hill: 2, 0, 0, 9 (11) Kirstin Patton 4, Elianys Caraballo 3, Audrey Woolridge 2, Alayzia Harrison 2.

Coffee County: 27, 17, 19, 15 (78) Channah Gannon 20, Audri Patton 12, Olivia Vinson 12, Ella Arnold 11, Jules Ferrell 5, Jaydee Nogodula 4, Natalie Barnes 4, Morgen Spears 4, Andon Selvog 3, Kaysen Morgan 3.

Coffee County Red Raiders: 40, Spring Hill Raiders: 39

After returning to the win column on Tuesday night against Lincoln County, the Red Raiders were hoping to close out a tough district slate with a season sweep of Spring Hill on Thursday.

Spring Hill would pace the game at the start, outscoring Coffee County 17-13 in the first quarter, but the Red Raiders fought back in the second quarter to tie things up at 23-23 to end the first half.

The Red Raiders were held to just seven points from senior Cayden Trail in the third quarter, and Spring Hill would take a 35-30 lead heading into the fourth.

Coffee County, with the help of their defense, would go on a 9-2 run to take a 39-37 lead with 45 seconds to go in regulation.

Landon Miller would tie the score back up at 39-39 for Spring Hill with a two-point jumper and the sophomore had the opportunity to give the visitors the lead after being fouled on the attempt, but the free throw wouldn’t fall, keeping th score knotted up with 33 seconds to go.

The Red Raiders would work the clock down on their last possession and senior Courtland Farrar would draw a foul with 4.8 seconds remaining. Farrar, who would end up scoring all seven of his game points in the fourth quarter, would hit one of his two free throws to give Coffee County a 40-39 lead.

Spring Hill would be unable to get off a legitimate shot attempt in the final seconds, and the Red Raiders survived for their sixth district win of the season.

“We were lucky to get a win,” said Coach Andrew Taylor. “Aside from the first quarter, our defense was really solid to only allow 39 points, but we have to score more than 40. Credit to Spring Hill, they had a nice zone defense, but we just turned it over too many times and didn’t take good shots. However, we held on and made enough plays to win, so we’ll take it.”

The win for the Red Raiders was also their sixth district game to be decided by single digits. With wins over every team in the district minus Warren County, Coach Taylor believes that his team has a good chance to go on a run in the tournament.

“These guys feel like they could beat anybody,” Taylor said of his team. “We’ve beaten four of our five district opponents and we were nearly there in that second game with Warren, so if we play the right way, there’s no team in the district we can’t beat. We just have to go out there and do it.”

The Red Raiders end the district portion of their schedule with a 6-4 record.

Spring Hill: 17, 6, 12, 4 (39) Elijah Carter 12, Landon Miller 11, Ashton Hoffman 9, Jonathan Knight 3, Tige Kennedy 2, Xavier Dawkins 2.

Coffee County: 13, 10, 7, 10 (40) Cayden Trail 15, Brady Wright 8, Cortland Farrar 7, Jayden Carter 4, Jaiden Warren 2, David Lewis 2, Caiden Warren 2.

The Red Raiders will end the regular season at “The Patch” on Friday, Feb. 14 in a boys-only contest with Grundy County. Varsity action is slated to start at 7:30 p.m.