Coffee County will not be repeating as district champions.
After storming from behind and taking a 27-24 lead early in the third quarter, the Raiders were outscored 23-5 for the remainder of the game and lost to Franklin County 47-33 in the District 6-4A semi-finals Tuesday night in Manchester.
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The Raiders played excellent in the middle two quarters – but not so much in the first and fourth.
Coffee County (15-10 overall) fell behind 18-8 after one quarter, but closed the deficit to just 4 at the break, down 22-18. CHS went on a quick 9-2 run to start the second half and take a 3-point lead. But from there the wheels fell off. The Raiders could not get buckets to fall and never seemed to get to the free throw line.
Coffee County was just 3-of-6 at the stripe, compared to 21 attempts by the Rebels. The Raiders were hit for two technical fouls in the fourth quarter.
Coffee County was led in scoring by Cooper Reed with 13 points. No other Raider reached double-figures. Dayne Crosslin had 8 in his first game back after missing three games with a bad ankle.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Raiders – a bad time to hit a slump. Coffee County will now play for third place at 6 p.m. Saturday against Shelbyville at Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gymnasium. The Raiders will be traveling to either the no. 1 or no. 2 seed from District 5-4A in the Region 3-4A quarter finals later next week.
