Darius Rozier of Coffee County CHS basketball
The Red Raider basketball team opened the Region 4AAA Tournament on Tuesday night at home against Riverdale. The regular season District 8AAA champions welcomed the regular season 7AAA district champions in a quarterfinal matchup in a win or go home battle. After leading through 3 quarters, Coffee County saw Riverdale rally to capture the 53 to 47 win over the Red Raiders.
The Red Raiders jumped out to a 1 point lead in the first quarter and built it to 8 points at the half and 5 points entering the final stanza. The depleted Coffee County roster seemed to run out of gas in the 4th quarter. With a pair of injured starters unavailable for the last 2 weeks, and several starters nursing injuries, the Red Raiders could not overcome a 4th quarter rally from the deeper and taller Riverdale squad.
Darius Rozier finished the game with 22 points as he earned the Crazy Daisies player of the game honor. Rozier also reached the 1,000 career point mark during the game. Kyle Farless added 13 points and Jaxon Vaughn added 6 points.
The game marked the end of the careers for seniors Andrew Mahaffey, Chase Simpkins, Darius Rozier, and Harley Hinshaw who captured the regular season District 8AAA title. The Red Raiders finish the season with a final record of 19 and 7 including the first regular season district title this century.
