Tyler Hatfield powers up a shot during Thursday night's win over Grundy County.

  The Tullahoma Wildcats opened the season at home Thursday night with a 55-53 win over Grundy County in a TSSAA Hall of Fame game. (The TSSAA allows each school up to two extra games at the start of the season with 80-percent of the proceeds going toward a TSSAA Hall of Fame building).
  The Cats didn’t take the lead for good until the 1:11 mark of the fourth quarter when Adam Barnett drove into the lane and hit a pull-up jumper to put his team up 53-52. Cass Barnes followed with a pair of free throws with 30.9 seconds left to pad the lead, but it still got interesting at the end.
  After Barnes put the Wildcats up by three, Grundy County stepped out of bounds on a drive under the basket with 18 seconds left, but the Wildcats gave it right back to them on a turnover with 7.2 seconds left. After both teams took a timeout to look things over, coach Jeff Taylor had Barnes foul with 4.9 seconds remaining, sending Robert Parson to the line for two shots but facing a three-point deficit. He missed the first but made the second free throw, and Tullahoma was able to get the ball in and kill the clock.
  The Wildcats, coming off an 18-win season that saw them finish third in the district and make the region tournament for the first time in a several years, came out of the gate playing an up tempo style that fits their small, quick lineup. They jumped out to a seven-point lead midway through the first quarter and led 16-14 after the first stanza thanks to 10 points from the senior Barnes.
  Grundy County took the lead 17-16 on the first basket of the second quarter then spent most of the rest of the night playing catch up after the Cats scored eight in a row to ease out to a 29-20 lead. That lead was as much as 10 points midway through the third, but the Yellow Jackets, under former Motlow Lady Buck and Lincoln County Falcon coach Mike Holt, put together an eight-point run to close the gap to two after three periods.
  The two teams swapped the lead through most of the fourth quarter. Tullahoma took a one-point lead with 2:37 left when Barnes made a steal and slammed the ball home on a breakaway, but Grundy came right back to re-take the lead 18 seconds later. The Yellow Jackets had their final look from the leader’s vantage point when Jared Meeks hit two free throws to put them up 52-51 with 1:27 left.
  Barnett hit his pull-up jumper 16 seconds later to put the Wildcats up to stay.
  The Cats will have another Hall of Fame game at home Saturday against Macon County. The day gets started with junior varsity girls at 3 p.m. followed by junior varsity boys. The girls varsity game starts at 6:30 p.m. with varsity boys to follow.

Wildcats (55) Cass Barnes, 20; Adam Barnett, 14; Chance Askins, 5; Tyler Hatfield, 6; Alan Prince, 1; Frank Dicker, 6; Tryston Horton, 3.
Grundy County (53) Brandon, 5; J. Nunley, 6; Parson, 7; Dyer, 4; Jared Meeks, 10; Sartain, 7; Derek Seagroves, 13; Cunningham, 1.