F or the third straight year, Coffee County girls’ basketball’s season came to an end at the hands of Bradley Central.

Taking on the 3-time defending state champion Bearettes in the Class 4A Region 3 semifinals, the Lady Raiders went into halftime trailing by eight points but fell further behind on the way to a 59-40 loss last Monday night. While this time around it was at Warren County High School, the previous two seasonending defeats had come against Bradley Central in the TSSAA Class 4A State Tournament at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.

“Our effort was there. We didn’t shoot the ball the way we needed to to beat them. They’ve got the best player in the state on the floor (Bradley Central senior Kimora Fields) and she showed it. She went for 38,” Coffee County coach Joe Pat Cope said. “We got some good looks early, we just didn’t knock them down and to beat a team like that, you’re gonna have to shoot 60 or 70 percent and we shot about 30. That’s not gonna cut it.”

A quick start for the Bearettes put Coffee County in an 8-0 hole early before a 3-pointer from Audri Patton put the Lady Raiders on the board. Bradley Central continued to push ahead over the first quarter’s remainder, with Coffee County adding just one more basket from Hayleigh Harris in this span to finish the quarter trailing 17-5.

Coffee County briefly cut the Bradley Central lead to nine points early in the second quarter, but the Bearettes pushed it back into the double digits and kept it there for much of the first half’s remainder. Down by 13 close to halftime, another trey from Patton cut the Bradley Central lead back to 10 points. Natalie Barnes followed with a heave at the buzzer, sinking her shot to send the Lady Raiders into the break trailing 26-18.

Bradley Central answered with a dominant third quarter to take further control of the game, outscoring Coffee County 19-8 to head into the fourth quarter up 45-26. Fields, a 2026 Class 4A Miss Tennessee Basketball finalist and Clemson signee, accounted for 16 of the Bearette’s 19 points over the course of the quarter.

Coffee County went on to score 14 more points through the game’s remainder, but so did Bradley Central to keep the Lady Raiders down by 19 as time expired. Fields continued to make her presence on the court felt, accounting for 10 more points in this span before the clock struck zero.

Jenslee Nogodula led Coffee County’s offensive effort with 11 points. Patton followed with nine points on a trio of 3-pointers. Harris and Barnes finished right behind with eight points each. Kaysen Morgan added a single trey for three points. Morgen Spears had a single free throw for one point.

The win ensured Bradley Central a return trip to Warren County for the Region 3 final, where it will face Cookeville at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. The Lady Cavaliers defeated Cleveland 66-52 in the second region semifinal game Monday evening.

The loss ended Coffee County’s season with a 23-8 overall record, including a 7-3 district record when including the postseason. Two of these district losses came at the hands of Cookeville, including the District 6 tournament final to snap an eight-year district championship streak.

“We ended up with 23 wins, second in the district. It would’ve been another district championship, a thousand percent, if we’d had Natalie Barnes for 10 district games, but we didn’t and I thought the younger girls stepped up,” Cope said of the Lady Raiders’ 2025-26 season. “You take the best player off the court and you’re not gonna be as good and we weren’t. But the younger girls grew and next year, we’re not gonna have a Natalie out there, so they’re gonna have to step up. I really thought Jenslee (Nogodula) did that tonight. She looked to score, hit a couple of big 3s and that’s how it’s gonna have to be next year.”