It wasn’t easy, but Coffee Middle School’s Lady Raider basketball team put the finishing touches on a perfect conference season Saturday in Shelbyville.
Coffee County picked up 11 points each from Olivia Vinson and Channah Gannon and hit enough free throws late to hang on and beat White County Middle School 35-30 in the CTC Championship game at Harris Middle School.
Coffee County led by one with less than a minute to play when seventh grader Natalie Barnes stepped up to the free throw line and buried a pair of shots to push the CMS lead to 33-30. Barnes finished with 6 points.
Coffee County missed four consecutive free throws after that to give White County two possessions with a chance to tie the game, but the Lady Raider defense stepped up and didn’t allow another point. Vinson buried a pair of free throws with 1.6 seconds to play to ice the game.
Sophie McInturff added seven points to the Lady Raider offense.
The win improves the Lady Raiders to 14-1 on the season and caps a perfect conference record. The lone loss on the season came back on Nov. 19 to Lipscomb Academy.
The Lady Raiders move on to the Region Tournament, which will be held in two weeks.
All conference
After such a dominating conference season, all five Lady Raider starters were name to the CTC All-Conference Team: Olivia Vinson, Natalie Barnes, Channah Gannon, Ava McIntosh and Sophie McInturff.
The Lady Raiders will be guests on The Coffee Coaches show next Saturday, Jan. 23. The show airs weekly on Thunder Radio from 10-11 a.m. at Al White Ford Lincoln
