Shelbyville Times-Gazette: High School Sports: Turnovers, missed shots sting Eaglettes (02/07/10)

Senior Katlin Buchanan drives down the baseline past Lawrence County's Aryanna Gilbert for a basket.
(T-G Photo by Gary Johnson)

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This is a game that could have gone either way.

In a classic matchup of teams looking to gain momentum going into postseason play, District 8-AAA-leading Lawrence County escaped with a 46-43 win over host Shelbyville Central on Friday night.

Turnovers, along with missed layups and free throws, proved to be costly for the Eaglettes.

Despite the loss, Eaglette coach Lynn Burkey saw a lot of positive things out of his team.

"I'm very proud of my basketball team." Burkey said. "By no means did we play a perfect game, but I thought this team went out on that floor and put everything they had in this game. We had too many turnovers, missed a number of easy shots and had some mental breakdowns on defense but this team played hard, fought from the beginning to the end and if they will continue to do that for the remainder of the season we're going to shock some people down the stretch."

This game was close from start to finish with 13 lead changes and eight ties. The biggest lead either team had was four points.

Shelbyville (13-8, 6-3 8-AAA) posted an 11-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter, then a questionable 3-pointer from midcourt at the end of the first half gave the Lady Wildcats (21-2, 9-0) a 23-22 lead at the break.

The Eaglettes scored six unanswered points midway through the third stanza to go up 30-27, but a pair of free throws by Middle Tennessee signee Jordyn Luffman with no time on the clock gave Lawrence County a 33-32 lead.

Back-to-back baskets by Janie Graves tied the game at 43-all with 2:02 left, but the Lady Wildcats made 3-of-4 free throws from that point and the Eaglettes missed a 3-pointer at the end of the game.

"I thought our defense played very well and we did a god job of running our game plan the entire game," Burkey said.

Luffman led the Lady Wildcats with 13 points after being held to only one point in the first half. Aryanna Gilbert added 11 with only four in the second half.

Graves pitched in 13 and Katlin Buchanan netted 11 for the Eaglettes.

Shelbyville posted a 23-19 edge in rebounds with Keely Sale leading the way with six.

The Eaglettes were scheduled to visit Wilson Central on Saturday and host Tullahoma on Tuesday night at 6:30.