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The CCHS Lady Raiders dominated in a 94-21 victory over Siegel while a valiant second half effort by the Red Raiders fell short in a 46-40 loss to the Stars on opening night at The Patch on Tuesday.

CCHS Lady Raiders

The Lady Raiders got off to a hot start as Ava McIntosh, Olivia Vinson and Jules Ferrell each hit a three pointer with Vinson also adding a three-point play in the midst of a 12-0 run in the early minutes. 

Coffee County would go on an 11-0 run after Siegel made their first basket, then end the first quarter with a 9-0 run to take a 32-4 lead after the first eight minutes of play.

The Lady Raiders would add seven more unanswered points to begin the second quarter, then go on another double digit scoring run to help build a mountain of a halftime lead, 57-7. 

With a commanding advantage, the bench unit for Coffee County was able to play a huge chunk of minutes. Hayleigh Harris and Adalyn Clark each took advantage in their high school varsity debuts, with Harris scoring her first points in the second quarter and Clark scoring her first points in the third.

The Lady Raiders never let up in the second half, outscoring Siegel 37-14 over the final two quarters to cap off a 94-21 victory.

“We couldn’t have started any better,” said Lady Raider Head Coach Joe Pat Cope. “We knew that Siegel was big, we didn’t know what they had skill-wise, but you still need to make your shots, and right out of the gate we went four-for-four from the three-point line. The bench got excellent minutes tonight and we’re excited about what’s ahead of us.”

One of the many players that was able to get a load of playing time was sophomore back-up point guard Jaydee Nogodula, who believes that the Lady Raider bench is a bit more complete than the competition.

“I feel like we’re different from a lot of other bench units,” said Nogodula. “I believe we’re a lot deeper and we work better together than a lot of other teams.”

The Lady Raiders will now prepare themselves for a two-game slate on Saturday when they play host to Fayetteville and Nolensville for the Hall of Fame Playday.

“Nolensville won a Region Championship last season and we might possibly face them in the Region Tournament this season,” said Cope. “We just want to get in here, roll up our sleeves and see who’s got the most hay in the barn.”

Both playday games will take place on Saturday, Nov. 23 with the first game against Fayetteville being played at 11:30 a.m. at Coffee County Middle and the second game against Nolensville taking place at 4:30 p.m. at CCHS.

Box Score: Siegel Stars (21) Neela Alexander 8, Seleen Barrett 4, Mary Ignatz 3, Jordyn Johnson 3, KeMani Kelso 2, Kimora Lyons 1.

Coffee County Lady Raiders (94) Jules Ferrell 16, Olivia Vinson 16, Natalie Barnes 13, Audri Patton 9, Kaysen Morgan 9, Hayleigh Harris 8, Morgen Spears 8, Adalyn Clark 6, Ella Arnold 5, Ava McIntosh 4.

CCHS Red Raiders

In the boys’ game, the visitors from Murfreesboro had the edge in the first half, as the Stars narrowly outscored the Red Raiders 12-11 in the first quarter. 

Siegel would distance themselves further from the Red Raiders in the second quarter, building up a halftime lead of 29-22.

Coffee County came out of the halftime break with new life, holding the Stars to just five points on the defensive end and taking a 35-34 lead at the end of the third quarter.

The battle continued on into the fourth quarter, and with 2:30 left to play, the score was deadlocked at 40-40.

The Stars would retake the lead 42-40 with a minute to play, and the Red Raiders would be unable to respond, missing a three point try on their next possession with over 19 seconds left. 

From there, the Stars scored four more points in garbage time to take the game 46-40.

“We needed to take care of the ball,” said Red Raider Head Coach Andrew Taylor. “We had 19 turnovers, and that comes from some guys out there who haven’t played a lot, and the only way you get through that stuff is by playing. We out-rebounded them, we beat them on the glass, we held them to 46 points and that’s a good high school basketball team. It was a phenomenal effort by our guys to come back in the second half. Some of our guys came back from football and played well and some of our younger guys that haven’t played a lot of varsity minutes played well.”

The Red Raiders will have three more games before the Thanksgiving break, starting on Friday at Cascade.

“We have to stack some good days together,” said Taylor. “We need to come in tomorrow, go over some things, understand how important some details are and then have good practice on Thursday. The biggest thing you deal with in lack of experience is inconsistency. As you saw in stretches throughout the night, we had stretches where we looked good and stretches where we didn’t look so good. So we need to practice consistently with good reps, good tempo and then we have to go play Friday at Cascade, who’ve had a good program for the last few years and then we come back here Saturday and play again.”

Tipoff for the Red Raiders’ road contest at Cascade on Friday, Nov. 22 is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Box Score: Siegel Stars (46) Carter Webb 21, Kale Martin 12, Lawson Lee 7, Devan Goring 2, Dorien Lyles 2, Matthew Rice 2.

Coffee County Red Raiders (40) Brady Wright 12, MJ Rollman 6, Kaysen Lowery 6, Jaiden Warren 5, Jayden Carter 5, Luke Campbell 3, Courtland Farrar 2, Levi Rollman 1.