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On Friday night, the Red Raiders came back from a 47-41 deficit with two minutes left in the fourth quarter to beat the Cascade Champions 55-54 in overtime for their first win of the season.

In the opening minutes of the game, the lead changed hands several times, but the Red Raiders went on a run to end the first quarter with a 21-15 lead.

Shots could not seem to fall for the Red Raiders in the second quarter, and the Champions took advantage, outscoring the Red Raiders 17-8 to take a 32-29 lead into halftime.

To start the third, the Champions would go on an 8-1 run. Coffee County would respond by outscoring Cascade 11-7 in the remainder of the period, but the Champions remained ahead 47-41 heading into the fourth quarter.

Over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, no team could buy a bucket. On one Cascade possession, the Champions killed nearly two minutes of game clock without even attempting a shot.

Coffee County senior Brady Wright would finally end the nearly six minute drought with a three pointer that cut Cascade’s lead to 47-44, but the Champions came right back with a bucket of their own to make the score 49-44 with 1:56 remaining in regulation.

After a Cascade miss, the Red Raiders came right back the other way and sophomore MJ Rollman hit a three pointer of his own to make it a one possession ball game with over a minute left in the fourth, 49-47.

The Champions would again come up empty and Wright would draw a foul on a drive to the basket, giving the Red Raiders a chance to tie the game with over 50 seconds left in regulation. Wright would hit two clutch free throws and tie the score at 49-49.

Cascade would take their time getting a shot off, but again come up empty on their next possession. Wright would grab the rebound and race back to the three point line to launch a potential game-winner for Coffee, but that shot missed the mark and the paying fans would be treated to four free minutes of basketball.

Audie Nicoll would score the first points of overtime for a 51-49 Coffee County lead that would last over three minutes, but the Champions hit a three pointer to go ahead 52-51 with 59.5 seconds left in the extra period.

The Raiders would regain the lead later with another basket by Nicoll, but that lead would not last too much longer, as Jayden Carter was called for his fifth foul of the game on the next Cascade possession, and the Champions sank both free throws to take a 54-53 lead with roughly 20 seconds to go.

Wright would miss another potential game-winner on the next Red Raider possession, but a relentless Rollman grabbed the rebound and drew a foul on the put-back attempt with less than a second left.

Rollman would drill both free throws and the Red Raiders would hold on for a thrilling 55-54 win.

“It was a good comeback,” said Coach Andrew Taylor. “I thought we turned the ball over too much, but we got down, defended and then we finally came and generated some offense by getting the ball inside, driving the ball to the basket and drawing some fouls. We settled for threes too much in the early going, but in the end it was a solid comeback and we had multiple guys make big shots and make big defensive stands.”

Box Score: Coffee County Red Raiders (55) Brady Wright 13, MJ Rollman 13, Audie Nicoll 10, Kaysen Lowery 4, Jaiden Warren 3, Luke Campbell 3, David Lewis 3, Courtland Farrar 3, Jayden Carter 3.

Cascade Champions (54) Henry Stone 13, Kaleb Kelso 11, Jason Cullum 10, Noah Watson 8, Tyler Rogers 7, Tyler Barrett 3, Landon Beasley 1, Cooper McElroy 1.

The Red Raiders improve to 1-1 in their start to the season and will have a short turnaround with their next game taking place at home on Saturday, Nov. 23 against Page at 1:30 p.m.

“Page is a very good team,” said Taylor. “They’re going to pressure us and we’re going to have to make good decisions with the ball. Everybody is going to pressure us, so that’s an aspect where we have to grow up very quickly and we need to execute better on offense. Our defense has been phenomenal and our rebounding has been solid, but we’ve had too many empty possessions. We survived tonight, but down the road we have to fix that.”