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The Coffee County Middle School basketball teams were back in action Monday evening, opening the week with a home series against West Tullahoma.

After a season-opening loss to South Middle last Thursday, the Lady Raiders bounced back with a 42-25 win to begin the doubleheader. The Red Raiders were not as lucky in the nightcap, falling 30-26 in a closely-contested battle.

Coffee County (1-1 girls, 0-2 boys) will travel to South Middle for its first road matchup of the season on Thursday. Tipoff of the girls’ game is set for 6 p.m.

CCMS girls get back on track

The Lady Raiders were able to shake off a close loss in last week’s season tip-off Monday night, going up early and not letting up on the way to a victory in front of their home crowd.

“I thought we were a little more aggressive on both ends of the floor. We tried to get the ball to post, we did a good job of that. We didn’t shoot free throws worth a flip. You always hear middle school games are won on layups and free throws. We didn’t shoot free throws, but we made most of our layups and played pretty aggressive on defense, but we’re getting better,” Coffee County coach David Vinson said. “This is the first year I didn’t have any starters back, so we were bringing back no experience and that showed the other night. It will continue to show, but I’m glad we got a win.”

Up 9-4 in the game’s opening minutes, Coffee County reached a double-digit lead by the first quarter’s conclusion and went into the second ahead 14-4.

West Tullahoma was able to tighten it somewhat from there, at one point cutting the Lady Raider lead to 18-13. Coffee County did not let West Tullahoma get any closer, adding five more points from there to go into halftime up 23-13.

The Lady Raiders continued to separate themselves in the second half, finishing the third quarter with a 33-21 lead before outscoring West Tullahoma 9-4 through the game’s conclusion.

“We’re 1-0 today. That’s what we want to do. We want to be 1-0 each day. We’ve got a little road stretch coming up, but we’ll be okay,” Vinson said. “These girls are gonna fight, they’re gonna fight every night. Whichever end we end up on, they’re gonna fight.”

Brooklyn Carlton led the Coffee County offense with 16 points. Kealey Branch followed with 11 points. Abbey Williams added six points, just ahead of Brinley Frederick with five points. Kinley Barker and Daisy Kapise both had two points each.

Red Raiders come up just short

Locked in a close game against West Tullahoma from the jump, Coffee County boys’ basketball ultimately came out on the losing end of Monday’s game to remain winless.

After a low-scoring first quarter saw the Red Raiders take a 4-2 lead, West Tullahoma was able to push ahead in the second to make it an 18-14 game at the break.

Trailing 24-19 following the third quarter, Coffee County began to climb back into it in the game’s final minutes at the free throw line, with points at the stripe coming from LT Carney, Braxtyn Swack and Eli Morgan.

After Morgan’s free throws made it a 26-24 game, a West Tullahoma 3-pointer put the Red Raiders back down by five. Morgan went back to the line and drained two more free throws to make it a 29-26 game, but West Tullahoma would add one more free throw of its own to beat Coffee County by four.

Morgan led the Red Raiders’ offensive effort with 13 points. Carney followed with 11 points. Swack had two free throws for two points.