S

The Coffee County Red Raiders defeated Spring Hill for a third time this season with a 74-58 victory in the first round of the 4A District 9 Tournament on Tuesday night in Manchester.

Coffee County had swept the two matchups with Spring Hill during the regular season, winning 50-39 on the road back on Jan. 28 and barely scraping by 40-39 in Manchester last Thursday, Feb. 13.

The Red Raiders’ offensive performance in the second meeting left little to be desired, but the third clash with Spring Hill would turn out to produce Coffee County’s best scoring output of the season thus far.

Coffee County raced out to a fast start in the first half, outscoring Spring Hill 21-7 in the first quarter and 22-19 in the second for a halftime lead of 43-26.

Senior Brady Wright paced Coffee County in scoring during the first half, dropping 13 of his 17 points in the first two quarters.

With each team fighting for their season to continue, things would get very physical. By game’s end, a total of 36 fouls would be tallied between the two teams.

Spring Hill would outscore Coffee 39-31 in the second half, but the Red Raiders held on to win 74-58.

“Anytime that you’re in one of these win-or-go-home games, you want a fast start, especially at home, and we did that,” said Coach Andrew Taylor. “For most of the game, we took good shots and that’s what we have to do moving forward. It was a good night to shoot the ball.”

Spring Hill: 7, 19, 23, 16 (58) Elijah Carter 13, Ashton Hoffman 10, Jaylen Knight 9, Dalton Resta 8, Landon Miller 5, Xavier Dawkins 5, Alphie Harrison 3, Sheadon Hamlin 3, Noah Hoffman 2.

Coffee County: 21, 22, 16, 15 (74) Cayden Trail 21, Brady Wright 17, Courtland Farrar 10, Jayden Carter 10, Kaysen Lowery 6, Levi Rollman 4, Jaiden Warren 2, MJ Rollman 2, Audie Nicoll 2.

The Red Raiders will advance to the District Semifinals where they will meet the host Shelbyville Golden Eagles. Coffee County split their two regular season matchups with Shelbyville with both games being decided by single digits.

With another close battle potentially on the horizon, Coach Taylor believes that a complete effort will give his team a chance to advance to the District Championship.

“It’s going to take a great effort defensively and on the boards,” he said. “Shelbyville’s playing really well right now and they’ve gotten even better gradually. If we defend well, rebound and take care of the ball, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”

The Red Raiders will face off against the Golden Eagles in the 4A District 9 Semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 22 with tip off scheduled for 3:30 p.m. The other semifinal game between Warren County and Lincoln County will take place later that evening at approximately 7:30 p.m.