Eaglettes get act together, stop Lady Lions

Shelbyville freshman Kelsie Smith takes it to the basket past Columbia defender Rashawn Sparkman. (T-G Photo by Gary Johnson) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

COLUMBIA -- In their most productive offensive performance of the season, Shelbyville Central's Eaglettes returned to their winning ways with a huge 71-54 District 8-AAA victory at Columbia Tuesday night.

The Eaglettes (10-6, 4-0 8-AAA) took control of the game early and never looked back to remain undefeated in district play.

After a disappointing last game in the GreenBank Ladies' Classic in Greeneville in which they blew a commanding 19-point lead, coach Lynn Burkey was proud to see his team bounce back, especially against a district rival like Columbia in their gym.

"This is a very satisfying win for our entire team," Burkey said. "We felt like we had a little mud on us from our last game in Greeneville and we wanted to go out tonight and shake the mud off our feet and I thought we did that with this performance. Not to mention the girls remembered getting beat right here on this floor about the same time last year.

"We did play pretty well in all phases of the game and we had a lot of players contribute to this win."

The Eaglettes took a 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and increased it to a 31-16 advantage at the half after Ceny Phelps scored at the buzzer.

Shelbyville continued to roll in the second half and led as much as 25 points (48-23) after a pair of free throws by senior Hannah Dawson.

The Eaglettes' biggest lead of the game was 61-34 when junior Katlin Buchanan scored at the 5:05 mark of the fourth quarter, but Columbia followed with a 14-4 run to cut the lead to 65-50 with 2:01 left to play.

"We did have one little spell in the fourth quarter when we lost our focus a little bit but other than that for the most part this was the team that we're working to become for the entire 32 minutes of the game," Burkey said. "This is a team that has shown they can easily lose their focus but I honestly believe that they've learned their lesson. We're still a work in progress in that regard but I think the girls realize that if we maintain our focus we can achieve our goals."

Dawson scored a game-high 27 points, connecting on 13-of-17 shots from the field, including a 3-pointer, and hit a perfect 2-of-2 from the charity stripe to lead the Eaglette offensive attack. She also grabbed six rebounds, contributed five assists and had a blocked shot.

Phelps joined in double digits with 22 points, including four 3-pointers.

Eaglette freshman Brianna McDonald goes after a loose ball. McDonald scored her first varsity points in this game. (T-G Photo by Gary Johnson) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Junior Monique Cotton paced Columbia with 22 points while Rashawn Sparkman netted 18 and Maleika Claybourne added a dozen.

Shelbyville held a 29-18 advantage in rebounds, 15 coming off the offensive glass.

"We've spent a great deal of time recently in practice focusing on finding ways to increase contributions from a variety of people and I thought tonight we took a big step toward that goal," Burkey said. "Callisha Johnson, Katlin Buchanan and Kelsie Smith all came on and gave us some quality minutes and I thought Shan Scott might have played the best game she's played thus far."

Columbia (7-6, 2-2 8-AAA) is young and extremely quick and a team that should improve by tournament time.

"I thought Cotton played a great game for Columbia and they are a team that is very talented and difficult to guard," Burkey said. "I thought we had a good game plan and the girl's executed that plan."

Shelbyville returns to action Friday at 6:30 against Coffee County at home.