LOCAL SPORTS | It’s time for game two of the 2023-24 Moore County High School girls and boys basketball district schedule. Both squads will face off against Fayetteville on Friday in Lynchburg.

Raiderettes beat AAA Tullahoma, fall to AA Loretto

In order to be the best, you need to play the best and Raiderette’s Head Coach Chad Spencer is a big fan of scheduling larger schools in order to challenge his team. They played both a AAA and a AA school since their last district win against Eagleville.

They come into the match up against Lady Tiger fresh off a narrow 54-50 loss against a top-ranked Loretto Lady Mustang team. The 16-1 Lady Mustangs are a perennial top 10 team who made it all the way to the Class AA Sectional game last season. One of their players, Ally Weathers, was recently named a Tennessean Mid Season Player of the Year. She led against the Raiderettes with 16 points. Moore County’s Kay Fletcher put up an impressive 20 points against the Lady Mustangs.

Moore County also snagged an impressive 43-35 against AAA Tullahoma last Saturday. Madison Dingler led in that game with 17 points. {To read our complete coverage of that game, click here.}

They notched their first District 9 victory last Friday with a 53-50 win against Eagleville. In that game, the Raiderettes put up 15 fourth period points to lift them the four-point victory. Ellie Graham led in that game with 17 points followed by fellow double-digit scored Fletcher with 13.

The Lady Tigers will travel to Lynchburg with a 8-6 overall record and 0-1 in District play. They lost to Huntland 58-49 last Friday.

Raiders looking for a spark

On the boys side of the ball, the Raiders will be looking for a spark to earn their first district win. They’ve lost the past three games straight. They fell to Eagleville in the season opener 75-49 last Friday. Three players hit double digits in that game. Alex Copeland led for Moore County with 18 points followed by Dawson White with 16 and Peyton Martin with 11.

Just down the road in AAA Tullahoma, the Raiders lost 77-39. Alex Copeland led against the Wildcats with 11 points followed by Logan Hegwood with nine.

On Tuesday, the suffered a 59-46 loss against a ranked AA Loretto team. Hegwood came off the bench and led for Moore County with 15 points followed by Peyton Martin with 10. Copeland and White added nine each and Wes Clifton made three from the line.

They’ll face a streaky 5-7 Fayetteville team who won three of their first four game and then lost six in a row. They won their first District 9 game against Huntland at the buzzer last Friday and also beat Forrest 61-43 on Tuesday.

With just four teams – Eagleville, Fayetteville, Huntland, and Moore County – in TSSAA Class A District 9 every district game matters. There’s still plenty of time to course correct with an eye towards post season play.

Playing against a supportive home crowd helps. Tips off of the girls game starts at 6 p.m. and boys action will follow immediately after. If you can’t come support them in person, the Moore County Sports Broadcasting Network will live stream the game on the NFHS Network. Or The Times will live blog the game on our Facebook page. •

{Community newspapers like The Lynchburg Times serve an important roll to high school athletes. Players use links to our articles in college applications and the TSSAA keeps up with Moore County star athletes through our coverage. That leads to more awards and recognition. Please consider supporting our work by subscribing. Click this link to sign up.}