Facing a tough Saturday night non-district challenge, the Coffee County basketball teams welcomed Huntland to the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym. The visitors from Franklin County both came into the game much improved from the earlier season meeting in November as each owned a modest winning streak. The Lady Raiders dropped a 56 to 46 decision while the Red Raiders blasted the Hornets 64 to 40.
In the girls’ game; Coffee County shooting woes early on, coupled with a 15 point first quarter by Huntland’s Ali Golden, put the Lady Raiders in an 11 point hole after the first quarter. The Lady Raiders battled back to cut that lead to 5 in the 3rd quarter, only to see Huntland’s outside shooting push the deficit to 11 with 6 minutes remaining. From that point, Coffee County held Huntland scoreless for the next 5 minutes as they cut the deficit to 3 points with 61 seconds left in the game. Missed shots at the rim by Coffee County and made free throws by Huntland allowed the Lady Hornets to pull away in the final minute for the win.
The Lady Raiders were led in scoring by Abby Morgan who finished with 20 points as she was named the Crazy Daisies player of the game. Alliyah Williams finished with 9 points and Aerial Williams finished with 7 as the sister duo combined for 9 points in the 4th quarter.

In the boys’ game, Coffee County never trailed as they jumped out to a lead in the 1st quarter before outscoring Huntland 20 to 7 in the 2nd quarter to put the game out of reach. Twelve different Red Raiders scored as all the Coffee County starters were able to rest the entire 4th quarter in the dominating win. Even while playing every player on his roster Saturday night, Coach Micah Williams saw his Red Raiders outscore Huntland in every period to capture their 16th win on the year.

The Red Raiders were led in scoring by Stephen Sullivan who finished with 11 points earning the Crazy Daisies player of the game honor. Grant Sadler finished with 9 points while Garrett Eldridge, Darius Rozier and A.J. Rollman each added 7 points.
Coffee County is back in action on Monday afternoon when Columbia visits “The Patch” for a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday matinee. The JV games will begin at 1 PM with the girls’ varsity game set to tip off at 4:00 PM. As usual, Thunder Radio will bring you all the action. Our live coverage begins at 3:50 with the Powers Storage Pregame Show.

The Coffee County Youth Basketball League opened their postseason tournament on Saturday at Coffee County Central High School with the quarterfinal round of games. Seven games highlighted a full slate of games as the league narrowed the field of potential champions to 4 boys and 4 girls teams.
In boys’ action:
College Street raced past East Coffee 27 to 2
Westwood outlasted Deerfield 26 to 18
Hillsboro edged East Coffee 29 to 16
Hickerson grounded New Union 28 to 16

In girls’ action
New Union stopped Hickerson 33 to 2
Hillsboro topped East Coffee 23 to 11
North Coffee beat College Street 24 to 17
And Westwood received a 1st round bye

 

 

The league will host the semifinal games on Saturday, January 21st at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gymnasium at CHS. The action begins at 9 AM with 2 girl’s games and 2 boys’ games. The schedule ifor Saturday:
9:00 AM – (Girls) Westwood vs. North Coffee
10:00 AM – (Boys) College Street vs. Hickerson
11:00 AM – (Girls) Hillsboro vs. New Union
12:00 PM – (Boys) Hillsboro vs. Westwood

The elementary consolation and championship games are scheduled for January 28th.

A pair of gold medals was the reward on Saturday for members of the CHS wrestling team after competing in the Goodpasture Invitational tournament. The individual tournament featured wrestlers from 21 different schools in the double elimination format tournament. While not a team event, Coffee County’s strong performance was good enough to rank 6th out of the 21 teams in team points.
Individual Results were as follows:

Rein Bozich was 4 and 0 on the day to win the 138 pound bracket.  Bozich also won best match award.
Owen Teague was 4 and 0 on the day to win the 145 pound bracket,
Joseph White was 3 and 2 on the day to finish in 4th place at 132 pounds,
Reid Lawrence was 2 and 2 on the day to finish in 5th place at 160 pounds,
Zack Adams was 1 and 2 on the day to finish in 7th place in the heavyweight bracket.
Dustin Duke finished in 7th place in the 106 pound bracket,
and Noah O’Shields finished in 9th place in the 126 pound bracket.

Coffee County will return home on Friday night to host the annual Border Battle Duals meet at the Coffee County Raider Academy. Tullahoma, Franklin County and Shelbyville will join the Raider grapplers for the 4 way duals match. The night’s matches will get underway at 6 PM.

Waking up around 5 a.m. CT to fly from Nashville to Denver wasn’t ideal, but the Predators still got the job done.

Nashville scored three unanswered goals and came back to beat the Colorado Avalanche by a 3-2 final at Pepsi Center on Saturday afternoon and earned their third consecutive victory and fourth of the season against the Avs.

The Preds had intended to depart Nashville on Friday afternoon, but mechanical issues with their aircraft forced them to fly the day of the game. But in the end, it didn’t matter.

“Talking about two gutsy wins at home, this one was the gutsiest of all of them,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Because of the circumstance that we had to overcome; I thought our guys played terrific.”

The Predators could’ve used flying from Nashville at 7 a.m. CT to arrive in Colorado in time for a 1 p.m. MT puck drop as an excuse. They could’ve complained about the altitude affecting their stamina. Perhaps it could’ve been the depleted blue line, missing both P.K. Subban and Roman Josi as a reason for a loss.

But instead, they put their heads down and recorded their fourth victory of the season over the Avalanche and kick off a five-game trip with a come-from-behind victory for a very important two points.

“Before the game, we talked about not having any excuses,” goaltender Pekka Rinne said. “It was a tough, long day for us, just leaving in the morning and our plans kind of getting [messed up]… It was extremely big win for us. This is our playoff time already, we have to get back in the picture and I can’t remember the last time we had a three-game winning streak, so it feels good.”

“It’s hard, the guys probably had to get up at 5:45 this morning, you’re out of sync and everything’s out of sync,” Laviolette said. “We’re such creatures of habit here, so much routine that goes on in the NHL on how we move and how we breathe, just day after day the same thing. This one is like OK, this is a whole new ballgame here, so our guys handled it really well.”

It didn’t take long for Cody McLeod to show what he’s capable of doing for the Predators.  Acquired on Friday from Colorado, McLeod suited up against his former team just more than 24 hours after the deal, and at 7:52 of the second period, he found the back of the net. Courtesy of a perfect feed from Harry Zolnierczyk, McLeod drove to the net and steered the puck past Semyon Varlamov for Nashville’s first of the afternoon and McLeod’s first with his new club.

Add that to a fight with Jarome Iginla, as well as 2:46 on the power play and a season-high 10:12 of ice time, it was an eventful afternoon for the veteran winger.

“It’s been kind of a whirlwind the last few hours, but I’m pumped to be here,” McLeod said. “I guess no better than getting it against your old team.”

“He’s just a hard-working guy that hits and fights and goes to the net; that’s a real good snapshot of who he is,” Laviolette said. “You saw it today. It’s always difficult when you come to a new team and new surroundings, so for him to have a big game like that, I’m happy for him and it’s special.”

Rinne echoed the sentiment from his coach and couldn’t be happier to have McLeod in a Predators jersey.

“Without any practice or anything, he did a really good job,” Rinne said. “Cody, huge goal by him, had a big scrap with Iginla too and he was a huge spark for our team. It’s just a nice to have him with us now.”

Denver, CO – January 14: of the Colorado Avalanche skates against the Nashville Predators at the Pepsi Center on January 14, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
Denver, CO – January 14: of the Colorado Avalanche skates against the Nashville Predators at the Pepsi Center on January 14, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images) Michael Martin

Notes:

James Neal returned to the lineup after missing the previous five games with an upper-body injury.

Harry Zolnierczyk and Derek Grant recorded assists on Cody McLeod’s goal, marking the first point in a Preds jersey for all three players.

Prior to Saturday’s game, the Preds recalled defenseman Petter Granberg from Milwaukee and assigned forward Pontus Aberg to the Admirals.

The Predators now head to Western Canada to prepare for a matchup on Tuesday with the Vancouver Canucks as their five-game road trip continues into next week.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of Tuesday’s game as part of the Predators Radio Network immediately following Coffee County basketball