By Tabitha Evans Moore | EDITOR & PUBLISHER

LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — To be the best, you need to play the best. This is the long-standing philosophy of Moore County Raiderettes Head Coach Chad Spencer. He makes it a habit to regularly schedule quality teams from bigger schools and the Raiderettes’ Monday night opponent, the Loretto Lady Mustangs, certainly qualify.

Like the Class A Raiderettes, the Class AA Lady Mustangs settled for runners up in last year’s TSSAA Girls’ Basketball State Championships in Murfreesboro. Loretto fell to Gibson County 49-37 in the finals. Many of the stars from that squad like Libby Sanders and Ally Weathers – who combined for 47 points on Monday – are back this year as they collectively make another run at the Class 2A gold ball.

And on Monday night in Lynchburg with home court advantage, after coming out flat, the Raiderettes stuck with them point-for-point through the second and third periods before Loretto pulled away late – mainly with points from the line.

All of the Lady Mustangs fourth period points came at the charity stripe and three Raiderettes – Ally Sharpe, Katy Fletcher, and Emma Sazonov – fouled out in the final minute of the game.

{Editor’s Note: This year’s Raiderettes’ basketball coverage is free to all readers thanks to our community partner, Woodard’s Market.}

Shots won’t fall in the first half

Every basketball team from Junior Pro to the WNBA experiences a game where their shots just won’t fall. For the Raiderettes, that game happened on Monday night.

Loretto scored first with a basket underneath then made a basket and one on their next possession to earn an early 5-0 advantage. Anna Harder broke the scoring drought with a trey at the 5:39 mark and Loretto’s Lil Price immediately answered to make it 8-3.

For the next uncharacteristic minute, Raiderette jumpers rolled in and out of the basket. Moore County treys bounced off the rim. Layups took an awkward bounce off the glass. Nothing would fall. Meanwhile, the Lady Mustang went on a quiet 7-point run to make it 12-3.

Finally, at the 1:15 mark, a determined Sazonov drove down the baseline and drew the foul. She made one of two to make is 12-4. Then, with less than a minute to play, Makenzie Goodwin swished a nothing-but-net 3-point shot. At the end of the first period, the Raiderettes trailed by eight, 15-7.

Moore County then paced Loretto for the next period. The Raiderettes matched the Lady Mustang’s 18 points in the second off points from Sharpe, Sazonov, Ellie Graham, and Goodwin.

The Raiderettes tied the game 22-22 off a trey from Sharpe with a little over three minutes to play in the first half. Loretto immediately answered. Moore County went into the halftime break trailing 33-25.

Graham led with 17 points

Out of the break, the Raiderettes again paced the Lady Mustangs. Both teams scored 14 in the third stanza. But they just couldn’t bridge the 8-point gap they’d created in the first period.

When you play pressure, you always risk that the officiating might not go your way and that certainly felt true for Moore County on Monday. All 22 Loretto points came from the line down the stretch and three Raiderettes fouled out. Loretto made 26 of 36 from the charity stripe compared to 14 of 21 for Moore County.

Ellie Graham, who fought for her life in the paint for most of the game, led for the Raiderettes with 17 points followed by Ally Sharpe with 10 points. Other contributing Raiderettes were Katy Fletcher (9), Makenzie Goodwin (9), Anna Harder (6), and Emma Sazonov (4). All of Goodwin and Harder’s points came from the perimeter.

Moore County scored 20 from the floor and another 21 from the perimeter. For comparison, Loretto made 22 from the floor, 21 from the perimeter, and 26 from the line.

Interestingly, the Raiderettes will get another shot at the Lady Mustangs during the Smoky Mountain Christmas Classic on December 19-20 in Sevierville.

The Raiderettes will conclude their December regular season home game with a match up against Culleoka tonight at MCHS. It’s game two of that series. The Raiderettes beat the Lady Warriors 75-29 on December 10. Tips off will happen at 6 p.m. •

{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 digital coverage. That leads to more awards and recognition. Please consider supporting our work by subscribing. Click this link to sign up.}