GRAY DEYOSports Writer

The Tullahoma girls’ basketball team picked up its first loss of the year, against rival Coffee County Central High School on Nov. 24. They lost the matchup by a score of 54-41.

The Lady Wildcats in this rivalry game did not fare well last year. They lost both matchups by 20 or more points. They proved early in this matchup that they had the talent to win this game. At halftime, the score stood at a 20-18 Lady Wildcat advantage.

In the first two quarters, Tullahoma was defending well and holding Coffee to some tough shots. On the offensive side of things, they were mainly doing their damage in the paint–freshman Gena Hickerson led the charge in this. Hickerson was responsible for the last score of the half, which gave Tullahoma the lead at the end of the first half. This came off a steal from sophomore Lizzy Sharpton, who assisted her on a fast break layup. Hickerson had a total of nine points in the contest, with five of them coming in the second quarter.

On the Coffee County side of things, their star player, Natalie Barnes, was struggling to score early. She was creating good separation on dribble moves, but her shot was not falling. In the first half, she only had four points to her name. This play from her did not carry over to the second half as she and her sharpshooting teammate, Kaysen Morgan, began to flip the game with perimeter shots.

Between the two of them in the second half, they combined for seven threes, with four of them coming in the third quarter. This shooting played a big part in the Lady Red Raiders having a 37-30 lead with just a few seconds left in the third quarter. Tullahoma was able to cut this score down off a buzzer three-pointer from senior McLayne Bobo, coming from a rebound kick out from sophomore Kenzie Farrell. This hope was quickly erased from the Lady Wildcats with back-to-back made threes coming from Morgan and Barnes to start the final quarter, ballooning their lead up to 10. This lead ended up being too much to overcome, as the ‘Cats got some good shots in the final quarter, but nothing was falling for them.

Barnes in the game ended up being the leading scorer with 26 points, and Morgan had 15. On the Lady Wildcats’ side of things, their leading scorer was Bobo, who had 19 points.  In the game, she did a great job of getting to the bucket and creating off the dribble for Tullahoma.