LYNCHBURG — The ending of the Moore County Raiders versus Lincoln County Falcons game felt like one of those feel-good underdog movies. The Class A Raiders gave the Class AAA Falcons a battle to the very end. They went into the fourth quarter trailing by 14.

On their first offensive possession of the fourth, sophomore Keller Morey swished a trey — cutting the lead to 11 and giving Moore County a spark. The Falcons missed on their next shot and junior Will Baker took advantage with a basket inside to cut the lead to just nine. The Falcons scored and Baker answered again seconds later. Seeing enough, Lincoln County Head Coach Mark Cornelius called time out.

Lincoln County scored a basket coming out of the break and sophomore Alex Copeland answered with a nothing-but-net trey to cut the lead to eight. Lincoln County scored again and again Copeland answered with another trey to narrow the lead to seven. Moore County fouled on the next possession and the Falcon shooter made one of his two from the line to build the lead back to nine. Fighting till the very end, senior Will Harder made a basket with seconds to go.

At the final buzzer, Moore County lost 77-71 — a six point L to the ninth ranked Class AAA team in the state.

Four Raiders scored double-digit points. Alex Copeland led with 20 followed closely by Will Harder with 18. Will Baker added 14 points and Colton Bateman scored 10. Kelley Morey also got on the board with seven points. Owen Sandlin led for Lincoln County with 21.

Moore County heads into this week’s District 9A Boys Tournament as a solid number two seed. Huntland and Eagleville will play a tie breaking game on Monday at 7:30 p.m. The winner will play Fayetteville on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Moore County will play their first round game against Cornersville on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. All games will be played at Moore County High School.

The Moore County Sports Network will broadcast games over the NFHS Network or you can follow The Lynchburg Times Facebook page for live score updates. •

The Lynchburg Times is the only locally owned newspaper in Lynchburg and also the only woman-owned newspaper in Tennessee. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}