The Tullahoma Lady Wildcats jumped out to a quick 8-4 lead halfway through the first quarter behind two quick three-point shots from Olivia Barlow, then held off a furious rally from visiting Coffee Co. on their way to a 50-39 win over the Lady Raiders on Tuesday, Dec. 15 at THS.

The victory, the Lady 'Cats' second of the season and second in their last three games, came as the team prepares to take its annual Christmas Holiday break. Tullahoma will participate in the Eagleville Classic Tournament, playing the host squad on Monday, Dec. 28 at 6pm in Eagleville.

The next regular season contest is Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010, with a non-district tilt in Lewisburg against Marshall Co. Tullahoma returns to District 8-AAA action and to its home gym when league-leader Lawrence Co. visits on Friday, Jan. 8, with tipoff scheduled for 6:30pm.

The Lady Wildcats and new head coach Steve Jobe could not have asked for a better Christmas present than the victory over the county-rival Lady Raiders. Wins over Coffee Co. in girls basketball do not come often for THS, although the Lady Cats upset the Lady Raiders last season in Manchester.

But Tuesday night's win was different for THS because for the first time in a long time it was obvious Tullahoma had the better team and the Lady Wildcats, thanks to Barlow's quick start, led from wire-to-wire and won going away. In fact, the lead was 17-7 after one quarter as Cam Davis and Kristina Tucker joined Barlow in hitting three-point shots. Barlow hit three in the first half and led the way with 13 points at the intermission as Tullahoma entered the locker room leading 24-13.

The Lady Wildcats lead remained somewhere between six points (26-20) and nine points (34-25), which was the score as the third quarter came to a close.

But Coffee Co., behind the hot fourth quarter shooting of Tori Taylor and Krysten Toliver, made a run to open the quarter and pulled to within three points at 35-32 with 5:20 left in the contest.

As she has done her whole career at Tullahoma though, senior Danae Thornburg took control when it counted most. Thornburg, who finished with 14 points, hit three of four free throws in the final minutes and handled the ball 75% of the final quarter. She was joined by her teammates in converting 9-11 free throws in the second half to seal the victory.

Barlow led Tullahoma with 18 points, followed by Thornburg's 14 points and four rebounds. Cam Davis hit two big three-pointers and had seven points, Kristina Tucker finished with five points, Mylesha Edwards had three, Julia Jernigan two, and Natalie Rayfield one. Sara Beth Nelius did not score but did pull down four rebounds.

Kaitlyn Thornton led Coffee Co. with 11 points and four rebounds, but fouled out late in the contest. Tori Taylor finished with eight points, Kaley Rogers had seven, and Emily Morgan scored six.

The win by Tullahoma helped to ease the sting of a 68-47 loss to District 8-AAA foe Columbia on Friday, Dec. 11. Thornburg led Tullahoma with 19 points in Columbia, while Davis had eight, Edwards six, Natalie Rayfield and Jernigan four each, and Nelius and Tucker scored three apiece.