Lady Cat senior Varonica Stewart defends against Coffee County's Jenna Hollins during Tuesday night's game as Andrea Cutshaw comes over to help.

  Coffee County’s Lady Raiders pulled away in the fourth quarter Tuesday night to post a 70-55 win over the Tullahoma Lady Wildcats at the THS gym.
  It was a battle of winless district teams with both squads entering the contest with 0-4 records in District 8-AAA. But, neither team played like it. It was a crisply played, entertaining game from start to finish with both teams asserting themselves from time to time. After the first couple of minutes, however, the Lady Raiders never lost control where it mattered most—on the scoreboard.
  Tullahoma kept it close most of the way and actually had chances to grab the lead a couple times in the fourth quarter. Coffee County led by five after one quarter and by four at half-time and the end of the third period. From that point, though, the Lady Raiders, and more specifically Sarah Beth Elam, took control.
  Elam poured in 16 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth period with many of the points coming on hustle rebounds. Tullahoma senior Andrea Cutshaw almost matched Elam’s total with 22 points of her own.
  The Lady Cats jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the game, but Coffee County responded with nine straight points and never trailed again. That doesn’t mean they weren’t challenged, however. Cutshaw scored five straight points early in the second quarter to cut the lead to one before the Lady Raiders pulled away again.
  A Cutshaw basket early in the fourth cut the lead to two again, and after Coffee County responded, Varonica Stewart nailed a three-pointer to again pull within two at 50-48. After Chrissi Edens hit a short jumper to make it 52-50 with 5:14 left in the game, the Lady Raiders and Elam took over and ran up an 18-5 advantage down the stretch.
  The Lady Cats play host to the state’s top-ranked team, the Shelbyville Eaglettes, Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Coffee County (70) Olivia Thompson, 3; Jana Hollins, 11; Cortney Page, 8; Jenna Philpott, 8; Ashley Taylor, 2; Jessica Taylor, 14; Sarah Beth Elam, 24.
Lady Wildcats (55) Erica Gilbert, 3; Varonica Stewart, 3; Emily Gilbert, 5; Holly Kiser, 7; Kristen Vance, 8; Andrea Cutshaw, 22; Chrissi Edens, 7.