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The Lady Raiders began district play with a 75-45 win over the Eaglettes, but the Red Raiders took their fifth straight loss in a 55-48 overtime heartbreaker on Tuesday night in Shelbyville.

CCHS Lady Raiders: 75, Shelbyville Golden Eaglettes: 45

After back-to-back dominant road wins over Tullahoma and Siegel, the Lady Raiders were looking to open district play with a win and keep their season-long winning streak going against the Golden Eaglettes.

The Lady Raiders would quickly go to work, outscoring the Eaglettes 27-8 in the first quarter, including seven points in the opening minute of play with the help of a furious press defense.

Shelbyville would battle back in the second quarter, going on a 9-1 scoring run before outscoring Coffee 15-12, but the Lady Raiders still took a lead of 39-23 into the halftime break.

The Lady Raiders would regain full control of the game in the second half, outscoring the Eaglettes 36-22 over the final two quarters to win 75-45 and improve to 19-0 on the season.

“As the old saying in basketball goes, you always press a pressing team,” said Coach Joe Pat Cope. “Every piece of film that we watched on Shelbyville, they would press on defense, but nobody would press them, so I challenged our girls to press them and I thought that got us rolling early.”

Earlier in the week, the Tennessee Sports Writers Association released the first statewide rankings of the season and Coffee County was placed at #2 in Class 4A behind Bradley Central, last year’s State Champions. After making the Final Four and losing to the Bearettes in the State Semifinals last season, the Lady Raiders have been eager to get back to Murfreesboro, but even with the sky high expectations, Coach Cope believes that his team won’t look too far ahead.

“These girls live it, they’ve been a top five team in the state for the last six years,” Cope said. “They know what it’s about, they’re going to stay focused, keep their eyes on the prize and be ready every night.”

Box Score: Coffee County Lady Raiders (75) Channah Gannon 28, Jules Ferrell 20, Natalie Barnes 12, Olivia Vinson 10, Ella Arnold 4, Ava McIntosh 1.

Shelbyville Central Golden Eaglettes (45) Lanaya Young 21, Janiya Leslie 9, Jada Berry 6, Yasmine McFarland 3, Kenley Patton 2, Jazmine Western 2, Nijah Gray 2.

CCHS Red Raiders: 48, Shelbyville Golden Eagles: 55

The Red Raiders were not only hoping to begin district play with a win, but also end a four-game winless drought in a road battle with the Golden Eagles.

Coffee County would start the game with a 6-0 run in the first two minutes before propelling themselves to a 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Red Raiders would add to their lead in the second, outscoring Shelbyville 14-10 for a 29-23 lead at the half, but Shelbyville would fight their way back in the third quarter, holding Coffee County to eight points and taking a 39-37 lead heading into the fourth.

The final frame of regulation would be a hard fought battle, and with two minutes remaining, the Raiders were trailing by a point, 42-41. Brady Wright would nail a three-pointer with 1:05 remaining to put Coffee on top 44-42, but the Eagles would tie the score back up at 44-44 with around 35 seconds to go.

The Red Raiders could never find an open shot on their last possession of the quarter, and the game went into overtime, where the Eagles outscored Coffee County 11-4 to take the win, 55-48.

“Effort-wise, I believe we competed really hard tonight like we always do,” said Coach Andrew Taylor. “We shot well from the free throw line, but we just couldn’t score down the stretch and credit to Shelbyville, they made some deep shots in that final stretch. We did some things that we wanted to do, like getting their big guys in foul trouble, but at the end of the day, it’s a make and miss game and you have to make shots.”

With the loss, the Red Raiders fall to 6-10 on the season.

Box Score: Coffee County Red Raiders (48) Cortland Farrar 15, Cayden Trail 13, Brady Wright 13, Jayden Carter 3, MJ Rollman 2, Audie Nicoll 2.

Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (55) Jack Conditt 14, Jevon Lee 12, Malek Johnson 10, Jordan Taylor 7, Zyon Bonner 6, Tae’Shawn Shelton 5, Idris Grey 1.

CCHS basketball will return to the friendly confines of Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gymnasium on Friday, Jan. 17 when they play host to district rival Columbia Central. Varsity action will start at 6 p.m.