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Four days after its trip to Shelbyville, Coffee County basketball was back at Joe Frank Patch Gymnasium for its first home district matchup of the season Tuesday night.

Hosting Warren County for a doubleheader, the Lady Raiders and Red Raiders wrapped up the evening with a win and a loss. The girls’ team got it started with a 52-35 victory to move to 2-0 in Class 4A District 6 play. The boys followed up by taking Warren County to overtime, before falling 36-32 to remain winless in the district standings.

Coffee County (17-3 girls, 10-9 boys) remains at home to take on Page Thursday evening. Tip-off of the girls’ game is set for 6 p.m.

Lady Raiders take care of business

Coffee County came into Tuesday’s game a little bit healthier, but was still without Natalie Barnes due to injury. That did not stop the Lady Raiders from earning a home win over rival Warren County to remain undefeated in district play.

“Natalie brought so much to the table. These girls, they’ve just kind of rallied around her and they want her senior year to still end special,” Coffee County coach Joe Pat Cope said. “There were times out there tonight we had two freshmen, a sophomore, two juniors, no senior on the floor. Then Audri Patton played so huge tonight. She stepped up and became our defensive leader and that just kind of got us jump-started.”

Trailing Warren County 7-6 early in the first quarter, the Lady Raiders took control on a Kaysen Morgan 3-pointer to go up by two. Coffee County continued to push ahead from there and went into the second quarter with a 14-9 lead.

The Lady Pioneers tightened the Lady Raider lead as the first half continued, cutting it to as close as 17-15 before a basket from Audri Patton gave the Lady Raiders some more breathing room. Coffee County went on to further separate itself from Warren County over the second quarter’s remainder, reaching 31-21 on a trey from Patton before halftime.

The Lady Raiders went on to take a 42-31 lead into the fourth quarter before finishing the game up by 17.

“Our defense definitely stepped up in the second half. We struggled a little bit on switching screens, but also our outside game is extremely strong,” Patton said. “We score a lot of threes and that’s where we get a lot of our points.”

Patton led the offense with 16 points, including four 3-pointers. Morgan followed right behind, nailing five shots from beyond the arc for 15 points. Jaydee Nogodula added nine points. Hayleigh Harris knocked down a pair of treys for six points. Jenslee Nogodula, Lilly Matherne and Morgan Spears all had two points each.

Raiders come up short in overtime

Coffee County came into Tuesday’s game having split its last two, falling 59-47 to Shelbyville in its district opener Friday night before defeating Franklin County 57-50 in its return home Saturday evening.

The Red Raiders went the distance with Warren County, pushing the Pioneers to the brink before ultimately falling 36-32 in overtime.

“Just some late, costly turnovers and they (Warren County) went and got rebounds. I’ll give them credit. They’re big, strong, they’re athletic, they’re well-coached. We had a couple possessions we couldn’t close out. We got a miss and then couldn’t get the rebound and then up three, we probably had three or four possessions in a row where we didn’t value the ball and didn’t execute offensively and wound up with empty trips,” Coffee County coach Andrew Taylor said. “But overall unbelievable effort. We had some guys step up, make big plays. It’s a lot of these guys’ first district action and district is intense. That’s the team that’s picked to win our league. We’re upset we let that one get away but we recognize the improvement that we’ve made.”

Trailing Warren County 8-3 after the first quarter, a bucket from Audie Nicoll cut the deficit to 8-5 before a Pioneer 3-pointer put the Red Raiders down by six. Jerrad Morgan delivered a trey of his own before halftime to send Coffee County into the break down 11-8.

The Red Raiders continued to keep right with Warren County as the second half began, at one point tying the game at 15-15 in the third quarter on another 3-pointer from Morgan. The Pioneers responded with one more basket to take a 17-15 lead on Coffee County at the quarter’s close.

After a quick start from Warren County put Coffee County in a 21-15 hole early in the fourth quarter, the Red Raiders hit six straight points to tie the game at 21-21. The Pioneers went back up by two points shortly after, but a trey from Kaysen Lowery followed to put Coffee County ahead 24-23 with around four and a half minutes remaining in regulation.

The Red Raiders continued to maintain their lead for much of the fourth quarter’s remainder, at one point reaching 28-24. Warren County was able to battle back into it before tying the game at 28-28 with around five seconds remaining in the quarter, ultimately forcing overtime.

Tied at 30-30 early in the extra quarter, the Pioneers were able to put together six unanswered points on the way to defeating Coffee County by four.

“I think it’s an understanding in the growing of we play the way we need to play. We need to do things that we need to do to give ourselves a chance to compete against these teams that are a little bit older, a little more experienced, a little more athletic, then we’re gonna be fine,” Taylor said. “I know they’re hurting, but as a staff, I think we’re encouraged and I think they ought to be encouraged.”

Lowery and MJ Rollman led the Coffee County offensive effort with eight points each. Morgan and Brady Christian each followed with seven points. Luke Campbell had a single bucket for two points.