Looking to keep their perfect seasons alive on Monday night, the Coffee County Central High School basketball teams welcomed Huntland to the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.  The Lady Raiders used their tenacious defense to key a 62 to 31 win.  The Red Raiders got a buzzer beating shot to complete the sweep 54 to 52.

Holding Huntland to 10 points in the second half and 3 points in the 4^th quarter, the Lady Raiders rolled to their 7^th straight win.  Coffee County opened up hot by racing out to a 24 to 11 lead after 1 but needed a basket at the buzzer to end the half from Morgan Jones to recapture the momentum lost to the Lady Hornets in the 2^nd period.  Bella Vinson led the Lady Raiders in scoring with 19 points as she was named the Crazy Daisies player of the game.   Abby Morgan added 12 points and Alliyah Williams chipped in 11 as 9 different Lady Raiders scored on the night.

Grey Riddle hauled in a weak side rebound and scored the game winning basket as time expired to give the Red Raiders their 6^th straight win.  Cold shooting by the Red Raiders, and a strong effort from Huntland, made the boys’ game a nail-biter from start to finish.   Tied at 52 with 43 seconds remaining, Coffee County patiently worked the clock down to give A.J. Rollman a shot with 3 seconds left.  Riddle collected the rebound and banked in the game winner just ahead of the horn to earn the Crazy Daisies player of the game honor.   Darius Rozier had 14 points to lead the Raiders and Garrett Booth collected 12.  Riddle shut down the Hornets leading scorer in the 4^th quarter and finished with 8 points himself.  DeAaron Rozier also had 8 points.

Coffee County hits the road on Tuesday night for a non-district contest at Warren County.  The girls’ game will tip off at 6 PM, Thunder Radio begins live coverage with the Char-El Apartments and Home Rental Pregame Show at 5:50

The Coffee County Middle School basketball teams grabbed a conference sweep on Monday night as they took down the visiting Trojans from South.  The Lady Raiders won 54 to 26.  The Red Raiders captured a 33 to 29 victory.

Jumping out to an 18 point halftime lead, the Lady Raiders crushed the Lady Trojans to improve to 9 and 2 on the season.  Coffee County held South to single digits in 3 of the 4 quarters in the win.   Kiya Ferrell led all scorers with 18 points.  Marley Perry and Alivia Reel each dropped in 11 points and Chloe Gannon came off the bench to score 5 points in the 4^th quarter.

A tremendous defensive effort from the Red Raiders held South to 5 points in the first half as carried a 12 point lead into the locker room at intermission.  Coffee County held off a second half rally from the Trojans to salvage a split of the season series with South.  Jacob Holder led Coffee County on scoring with 10 points.  Connor Shemwell added 9 and Phinehas Rollman added 6.

The middle school Raiders and Lady Raiders will travel to Woodbury on Thursday night to take on Cannon County.  The girls’ game will get underway at 6 PM at Cannon County High School.

The Temple Baptist Christian School varsity and junior varsity teams hit the road to Murfreesboro on Monday night for a boys’ basketball doubleheader.  Taking on Franklin Road Christian, the JV Eagles dropped a 53 to 26 contest.  The varsity Eagles lost a heart-breaker 57 to 51.

In the JV game, Franklin Road outscored the Eagles in every quarter to salt away the win.  Colton Summers was the leading scorer for Temple as he finished with 9 points on a trip of 3 point baskets.  Alex Gloden and Isaiah Baker each dropped in 8 points.

In the varsity game, a cold shooting touch in the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters doomed the Eagles in their upset bid against the Murfreesboro Minutemen.  After jumping out to a 15 to 10 lead after one quarter, Temple saw Franklin Road outscore them 34 to 16 in the 2 middle periods.  A furious finish, which saw the Eagles score 20 points, came up just a bit short.  Cody Swayze had 33 points for Temple to lead the Eagles offense.  Alex Gloden finished with 7 points and Mich Gloden added 6.

The Eagles will hit the road again on Tuesday night when they travel to Shelbyville to take on Victory Baptist.  The JV game will tip off at 5 PM with the varsity game to follow.

Craig Smith scored twice and added an assist to lead the Nashville Predators over the Boston Bruins 5-3 on Monday night.

Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist, and Nick Bonino and Filip Forsberg also scored for Nashville, which has won three of four. Pekka Rinne made 36 saves.

Charlie McAvoy, Zdeno Chara and David Pastrnak had the goals for Boston, which won its previous two games.

Smith scored the game’s first goal at 1:26 of the opening period. Boston goalie Anton Khudobin stopped Alexei Emelin’s slap shot from the left point, but Smith was positioned in the slot to bang home the rebound.

Smith struck again with 17.4 seconds remaining in the first.

From the left point, Mattias Ekholm sent a pass to Smith in the slot, sending him in on a partial breakaway. Smith beat Khudobin high to the glove side with a wrist shot for his 11th of the season.

Bonino made it 3-0 at 2:15 of the second.

Bonino won a faceoff back to Viktor Arvidsson at the top of the left circle. Arvidsson’s shot hit Colton Sissons and the puck bounced to Bonino on the left side, where he had a virtually open net to put in his fifth of the season.

Fiala’s goal at 4:10 spelled the end of the night for Khudobin. He allowed four goals on 14 shots and fell to 7-1-2 this season.

Tuukka Rask made 10 saves in relief.

McAvoy got the Bruins on the scoreboard at 10:14 of the second on a power play. From behind the Nashville net, Danton Heinen sent a pass to McAvoy at the right faceoff dot, where he beat Rinne with a one-timer low to the far side.

Boston made things interesting early in the third, getting goals from Chara and Pastrnak 1:15 apart to draw within one less than six minutes into the period.

Forsberg responded 34 seconds after Pastrnak’s goal to put the Predators back in front by a pair of goals following a timeout called by Nashville coach Peter Laviolette.

NOTES: Nashville D Yannick Weber returned to the lineup after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. … Predators C Ryan Johansen missed the game with an upper-body injury. … Smith scored 12 goals in 78 games last season.

UP NEXT

Predators: At the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report