DUANE SHERRILLSports Writer

Tullahoma’s middle school teams were shut out of the finals of the CTC tournament this past week with the East boys advancing as far as the semi-finals.

Coffee versus East boys

Coffee County expelled Tullahoma East from the CTC tournament this past week, stopping them in the semi-finals 31-19.

Coffee County scored the first eight points of the game. Gage Allen hit a 3-pointer with about 56 seconds left in the first quarter for the first points of the evening for East. The Panthers scored the first six points of the second quarter and took their first lead of the day at 11-10 with 2:35 left in the half on a layup from Colton Tinnon.

The Raiders hit a free throw shortly after that to tie the game, but Noah Jones hit a layup with 1:34 left in the period to give the Panthers a halftime lead.

The lead changed hands three times in the third quarter before the Raiders ended the period with nine straight points to pull away. The Panthers couldn’t hit a shot from the field in the fourth quarter, scoring only two free throws, which allowed Coffee to stay ahead the rest of the way.

Noah Jones led all scorers with 10 points on the night. East advanced to play Coffee by beating North 35-33.

In that game North got the first points of the game on a layup by Kyran Peace before East scored five straight and then led for the rest of the first quarter.

North tied the score up midway through the second quarter at 11-11 after a three-point play from Austin Heath, but then East’s Whit Pless hit a shot on the Panthers next possession to put them back in front.

North briefly took the lead at 16-15 with 4:50 left in the third quarter after two free throws from Peace. The Panthers then scored 10 straight points to re-establish control for the rest of the period. The Gators did score four points in the last 30 seconds of the period on shots by Monte Johnson and Jayden Cisco to make it a five-point game.

After East made it an eight-point game early in the fourth quarter, the Gators got consecutive 3-pointers from Monte Johnson and a 3-point play from Jackson Knight to take a 29-28 lead with 3:33 remaining. The Panthers tied it up with a free throw from Gage Allen with 2:18 left.

Gators pulled back ahead by a score of 32-29 with 1:28 remaining as Austin Heath hit three free throws across two trips to the charity stripe. Panthers then hit a 3-pointer to tie the score one more time with 1:12 remaining.

Heath hit another free throw with 58.5 seconds left to give North a 33-32 lead before East’s Maddox Muse hit a shot with about 30 seconds left to give the Panthers a 34-33 lead.

The Panthers added one more free throw late to make it a two-point game, and Heath took a half-court shot at the buzzer which went over the backboard to end the contest.

Harris versus West boys

Prior to East being excused, Harris sent West home with a 44-24 defeat thanks to Jason Lee who nearly outscored West on his own as he put up 22 on the night.

Elijah Alexander was big man on campus for West as he shot for 11 while Zion Jeffrey scored five.

West dropped in arears early, going down 9-4 after one. Alexander accounted for both first quarter baskets. Things got worse in the second as Lee got hot while Alexander put up the only three points of the period for the Bobcats as West was down 19-7 at the break.

West came to life in the third, outscoring Harris 13-6 as Jeffrey had all five of his total points while Patrick Riddle added a three and Trea King had a deuce.

While down only five going into the fourth, West was not able to advance its position as Lee had his biggest period with 14 points to end West’s season.

West earlier beat Warren County 26-25.

The Pioneers hit a pair of 3-pointers early in the first quarter with the Bobcats getting one basket in between on a mid-range jumper in the opening period. That was all of the scoring for the rest of the quarter.

Neither team scored for the first 3:40 of the second quarter before the Bobcats got two quick layups to tie the score. The Pioneers hit a shot of their own shortly after to quickly retake the lead going into halftime.

Bobcats took their first lead with about 3:27 remaining in the third quarter and held a 12-9 advantage before the Pioneers hit a 3 to tie the score with 55 seconds left in the period. Then Alexander hit a layup with about one second remaining in the quarter to give the Bobcats a 14-12 lead going into the final period.

The fourth quarter was mayhem. The Bobcats had a 16-12 lead before the Pioneers scored six straight points to jump ahead with 3:24 left. A 3-point play from Jeffrey put the Bobcats back up by one with 2:50 left, and then the Pioneer hit a 3-pointer 10 seconds later to take a 21-19 lead. Jeffrey responded with a 3-pointer of his own to make it 22-21 with 2:15 left.

A go-ahead layup by the Pioneers with 1:47 left was answered by another basket by Jeffrey with about one minute left to make it a 24-23 game. The Pioneers drew a shooting foul with 38.5 seconds left and their shooter hit both of his attempts to retake the lead one more time.

After an unsuccessful shot that they rebounded on the offensive glass, the Bobcats called a timeout with 10.3 seconds left. Alexander received the ball off the inbounds when play resumed, drove straight to the basket and put in a contested layup with five seconds left for the game-winner. Warren County wasn’t able to regroup in time to answer back again

West versus Coffee Middle girls

Coffee County Middle was also a thorn in the side of the West girls as they sent the Lady Bobcats home with a 32-24 loss. The West girls advanced to the semis against Coffee by beating Harris 38-30 in earlier action.

Madalin Lidstrom and Faith Vincent paced West with eight while Emerald Tillman had seven.

Coffee came out of the gate with an 8-5 lead after one thanks to a perfect four-for-four performance from the line by Lady Raider Lilly Matherine. Coffee extended its lead in the second, outscoring West 10-4 to take a 19-9 advantage into the locker room. Addie Nelson and Lindstrom were the only two to score for West in the second.

The third saw West make a comeback as they outscored Coffee 11-8 as Lidstrom and Tillman combined for nine points. However, still down six in the fourth, they were unable to chisel into their deficit.

In the Harris game earlier, the Lady Bobcats jumped out to an early 8-2 lead and briefly pulled ahead by double digits late in the opening period before ending the quarter with a 15-7 advantage.

They then scored the first nine points of the second quarter to give themselves a big lead for the rest of the half. The Harris Eaglettes came out playing very aggressively on defense in the second half and it threw off a lot of West’s momentum and rhythm. This allowed Harris to cut the deficit in half by the end of the third quarter.

The Lady Bobcats regrouped a bit in the fourth quarter and were able to prevent Harris from getting much closer for the rest of the day.

North versus East girls

North was able to dispatch the East Lady Panthers in short order, 41-22.

The Gatorettes scored the first eight points of the game and allowed just one total point in the first quarter with Brindley Duncan for the Lady Panthers.

Harper McShea was the offense in the second for East as she hit a pair of shots to account for the five total points put up by the Lady Bobcats in the second.

A run of 11 straight points by the Gatorettes to start the third quarter created a double-digit deficit that would last for the rest of the game

The teams alternated scoring in the fourth quarter with East getting no closer than 16 points away in the final period.

Information for this article along with pictures were supplied by Sam Cowan.