GRAY DEYOSports Writer

The Tullahoma girls’ basketball team, fresh off their upset win against Moore County, could not take down the ultimate goliath in Coffee County–losing to the Lady Red Raiders 69-21.

The Coffee County girls’ basketball team have run through their competition with little to no sweat this year, as they boast an undefeated record of 15-0, and when they walked into Tullahoma’s gym that remained the same. Their team is led by senior center Channah Gannon, and she is really what makes this team go both on the offensive end and defensive,

The Lady Red Raiders’ goal in their half-court sets on offense is to establish Gannon’s presence in the post. She is nearly unguardable one-on-one on the block, and when she shows that it forces multiple defenders to commit, which then opens up outside shots. This game plan was run to perfection against the Lady Wildcats as the Coffee County senior established herself in the paint quickly, scoring four early first-quarter points out of her eventual 15. This opened up the perimeter for her teammates, as they laced two threes in the opening quarter, out of a total of seven in the game. The Lady Wildcats were down 18-1 in a blink.

The Tullahoma offense generated good offense in the first quarter, despite only one point shining on the scoreboard. They were creating open shots; they just were not falling.

As the game lingered on, Coffee County, started to figure out the Lady Wildcats’ offense. This led to many Tullahoma turnovers that then turned into fast breaks, which then turned into easy layups or trips to the charity stripe for the Lady Red Raiders.

Coffee County’s guards are ultra-aggressive when playing defense, so much so that they often get beat off the dribble. Junior Lady Wildcat guard McLayne Bobo and other Lady Wildcats showed this, by maneuvering past Coffee County players on multiple occasions, but then stood an eraser.

Even when Bobo or any other Tullahoma player got past the initial player guarding them, Gannon was waiting around the corner, to either step in and play help defense, contest a shot, or flat-out block a shot. Her defensive IQ and height allow her teammates to guard aggressively so that even when they make mistakes she is there to back them up and erase their errors.

Senior Forward for Tullahoma Isabella Lidstrom was still able to generate some offense against the fourth-ranked team in TN–finishing with a game-high nine points.

Lidstrom and the rest of the Lady Wildcats will look to brush off the loss to Coffee County, when they take on Marshall County on Jan. 14, who they previously lost to on Dec. 13 47-41.