Westwood’s Morgan Jones drives to the basket on Saturday in the DRVC Tournament finals.

An inability to keep Forrest off the offensive glass proved fatal to Westwood Lady Rockets’ chances to claim the Duck River Valley Conference title on Saturday afternoon as Westwood fell by a final score of 48 to 42. A back and forth 1st quarter saw Westwood take an 18 to 15 lead with 5:26 left in the 2nd quarter when Forrest took a timeout. The adjustments in the timeout saw Forrest close out the half on a 13 to 5 run and a lead they would not relinquish. In the 4th quarter, the Lady Rockets fell behind by as many as 13 points before a frantic rally came up short in the final 2 minutes. Morgan Jones led Westwood in scoring with 20 points while Ashley Starks added 15 points.

Jake Hollandsworth(left) and Roderic Brinkley(right) of Westwood were named to the Duck River Valley Conference All-Conference team (Photo provided by Leann Partin)

The Lady Rockets finished the season with a record of 18 and 3, a regular season conference title and a runner up finish in the conference tournament. Jones and Starks were names to both the regular season all-conference team and the all-tournament team. Karen Medina was selected to the all-conference team while Beatris Barrera was selected for the all-tournament team. Following the boys’ tournament final, Jake Hollandsworth and Roderic Brinkley were honored as being selected to the regular season all-conference team for the boys.

Bailey Morgan of CHS basketball(Photo by Jay Bailey – Manchester Times)

The Lady Raider basketball team battled the way to a 1 and 1 record over the weekend in the Whitwell Christmas Tournament.  On Friday night, a slow start and foul trouble crushed the Lady Raiders chances of an upset of an 11 and 1 Silverdale Academy team.  The Lady Raiders trailed from the opening possession of the game to the hot shooting Lady Seahawks as they fell by a final score of 53 to 46.  On the negative side, the closely officiated game caused 3 Lady Raiders to foul out and saw all 5 starters miss many minutes due to foul trouble.  On the positive side, several young players for Coffee County got significant minutes of playing time and valuable experience.  Bailey Morgan led Coffee County in scoring with 15 points and was named the Gateway Tire & Service Center Player of the Game.  Abby Morgan finished with 8 points and Byanka Woods netted 6 points.

Aerial Williams(Photo by Jay Bailey – Manchester Times)

On Saturday, the Lady Raiders used a sterling defensive performance to drop the host Lady Tigers of Whitwell 54 to 36.  The Lady Raiders were able to once again get lots of playing time for their reserves as Coach Herb Horton played all of the players he had dressed out on the night.  Aerial Williams led Coffee County in scoring with 13 points while fellow starters Holli Smithson and Alliyah Williams both finished in double figures with 12 points and 10 points respectively.  Coffee County returns to the court at noon on Monday in the 5^th place game as they take on Sequatchie County.  That game will take place at Whitwell High School.

Filip Forsberg

Filip Forsberg scored less than a minute into the game, and the Nashville Predators fended off a late push for a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. The triumph gives the Preds 16 wins on the season, two of which have now come against the Wild.

The division victory was an important one for Nashville, bumping them up to 38 points and staying right in the thick of the Central.

“I thought our guys really just stepped on the gas and kept playing the game hard,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “There were lots of points that were critical in that game. When you have a team that has had a tough string of luck with regard to getting things done and winning hockey games, there were some big points in that game.”

Forsberg got the Preds off to the ideal start, deflecting home a Shea Weber shot that eluded goaltender Devan Dubnyk just 46 seconds into the contest to give Nashville a 1-0 advantage. Preds goaltender Pekka Rinne denied Jason Zucker on a penalty shot at the 8:28 mark, extending to get a piece of the chance with his glove hand.

The redirections continued on a Predators 5-on-3 advantage, courtesy of a Weber point shot once more. This time, it was Mike Ribeiro staked out in front of the cage, getting a piece of the shot to put Nashville up by two scores before the first period was out.

“It changes the game, they have to start changing what they’re doing and it’s just easier to play the game once you’re two up,” Ribeiro said. “Even if you score one, you’re still up and then you’re able to score a third one, and it’s just a different game. You can extend your lead after you score the first goal, and I think that’s a perfect example that once you score one, you score two then it changes the outcome of the game.”

James Neal potted his team-leading 13th goal of the season to put Nashville up 3-0 in the second stanza, snapping a shot through Dubnyk from the left side of the cage. Minnesota answered 43 seconds later, as Zach Parise tipped a Marco Scandella point shot past Rinne.

Zucker got the Wild to within one in the third, but Rinne and his teammates thwarted off the final Minnesota opportunities to come away with the victory.

“It’s a big win,” Laviolette said. “That’s a big game. We’re in a situation where the wins have been hard to come by.

“I really liked the way we hung our jerseys tonight together as a group. We all went out and played hard and we got a big win. Peks was terrific in net; you need your goaltender to be terrific and he was, but it was the division game against a real good hockey team that is playing well and we needed to get that done tonight. We did, and now we have to wake up tomorrow and start thinking about the next one before the break.”

“We played a pretty solid 60 [minutes],” Forsberg said. “They have a talented group so they’re going to get chances, but whenever they got chances, Peks played unbelievable back in the net and I think it was a pretty solid game. We let in a goal there and got a little nervous in the third in the end, but overall it was a good performance.”

The win is nice; the fact that it comes against a team in Nashville’s division is even better. It’s been a month since the Preds strung together consecutive victories, but as Rinne said on Friday after practice, sometimes one is all it takes. Nashville will get one more shot before the Christmas break on Monday against Montreal, and one more solid outing would provide added peace of mind during the holiday hiatus.

“That’s a good team, so it definitely is something to build off of,” Weber said. “We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves here. We’re not world beaters by any means. It’s a good solid game for us, but we have a tough opponent in Montreal who is fighting for a lot right now because they’ve been struggling too. [We need to] finish off strong here before the break and then figure it out when we come back.”

Nashville hosts the Montreal Canadiens on Monday at Bridgestone Arena, the club’s final game before the Christmas Break, which runs Dec. 23 through the 25. The Detroit Red Wings come to town on Dec. 26.  As always, you can hear all the Predators games here on Thunder Radio.

Grant Sadler of CHS basketball(Photo by Jay Bailey – Manchester Times)

The Coffee County Red Raider basketball team opened their Christmas tournament on Saturday with a convincing 49 to 31 win over Bledsoe County. The Red Raiders had their 3rd straight strong 2nd half as Coffee County stretched their 2 point halftime to 10 points after 3 quarters. Coffee County emptied their bench in the 4th quarter as they closed out their 6th win of the season with a 17 point final period. Grant Sadler led the Raiders in scoring with 13 points. Caleb McKenzie chipped in 9 points while Boone Riddle added 7 points.
In the opening game on the tournament, Tre Jones scored 16 points to help Oakland stay undefeated with a 62-45 win over Franklin County. Monday’s games begin at 3:00 PM as Bledsoe County takes on Franklin County while Oakland plays Tullahoma at 4:30. Coffee County returns to action on Tuesday at 4:30 PM when they take on Oakland. The opening game on Tuesday is a 3 PM contest between Bledsoe County and Tullahoma. All games of the Red Raiders Christmas Classic are being played at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym