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On Friday night, the Lady Raiders beat Blackman for a season sweep of the Blaze while the Red Raiders fall by three points in Murfreesboro.

The Lady Raiders stayed cool at The Furnace, dousing the Blaze in a dominant road win.

Coffee came out flying in the first quarter, outscoring the Blaze 16-2.

The Lady Raiders would further their lead in the second, outscoring Blackman 11-8 to lead at halftime, 27-10.

Coffee would then put the game on ice in the second half, outscoring Blackman 14-9 in the third quarter before adding another 15 points in the fourth to win the game, 56-21.

“We started out with a big scoring run and that really set the tone for the rest of the night,” said Coach Joe Pat Cope. “We’ve got one tomorrow too, so it’ll be a late night watching film on Ravenwood, but we’ll bounce back real quick and be ready to play.”

Scoring for the Lady Raiders were Natalie Barnes with 16 points, Olivia Vinson with 14 points, Jules Ferrell with 13 points, Audri Patton with five points, Ella Arnold with three points, Ava McIntosh and Morgan Spears with two points each and Lilly Matherne with one point.

The Lady Raiders are now 9-1 on the season.

Meanwhile, the Red Raiders started out slow against Blackman, and attempted to make a comeback, but Coffee would fall just short of victory.

The Blaze outscored Coffee 15-2 in the first quarter and 9-8 in the second quarter for a 24-10 halftime lead.

The Red Raiders started chipping away in the third quarter, as the Blaze lead was cut to just five, with the score being 30-25 heading into the to the fourth quarter.

The Blaze would go back up by double digits early in the fourth, but the Red Raiders rallied to cut the lead back down, as Blackman led 36-31 with 4:30 left in the game.

Coffee County would continue chip away, and bring the game within one point as the Blaze led 39-38 with 17 seconds left. 

Blackman would be quickly fouled and hit two free throws to go up 41-38.

The Red Raiders would again cut the lead to one, 41-40, but again had to foul, and again, Blackman made their free throws to make the score 43-40 with eight seconds left.

Coffee would bring the ball back down and Cooper Reed would open himself up for a three point attempt, but it hit iron and the Red Raiders lost, 43-40.

“We executed our defense really well tonight and offensively we were a lot more patient,” said Coach Andrew Taylor. “The difference in the game was the first three minutes. It’s hard to dig out of a hole against an opponent like Blackman, but these guys are fighters and they came back and had a chance to tie it at the end. Tomorrow, we play a really talented Ravenwood team, and we have to continue to get better and stack up four good quarters.”

Scoring for the Red Raiders were Cooper Reed with 16 points, Jackson Shemwell with 10 points, Cayden Trail with nine points, Brady Wright with three points, and Courtland Ferrar with two points.

The Red Raiders are now 3-5 on the season.

Up next for Coffee Central Basketball will be an afternoon showdown at The Patch against Ravenwood on Saturday, Dec. 9.