Loss to Wildcats damages Eagles' district hopes

After a huge win at district-leading Columbia on Tuesday night, Shelbyville Central suffered a disappointing 58-49 District 8-AAA loss to Lawrence County Friday night.

The Eagles' win at Columbia put them back in the race for the regular season title but, after this loss, Shelbyville's final district game Tuesday night at home against Tullahoma becomes even more important when it comes to tournament seeding.

"That win at Columbia put us back in pretty good position but now we're going to have to fight just to finish second," Shelbyville coach Kevin Thomas said. "I just feel like we didn't come out at the start of the game really fired up to play."

Despite struggling to get into any rhythm on offense, the Eagles (12-9, 6-3 8-AAA) only trailed 10-8 at the end of the opening frame.

Emmanuel Andrews canned three 3-pointers and scored 13 points in the second stanza to help the Eagles to a 25-23 lead at the intermission.

"Even though we didn't play very well in the first half we still managed to have a lead at the half," Thomas said. "At that point I really thought we would came out and play well in the second half."

The Eagles did go up 31-26 off a basket by Christian Haile at the 3:53 mark but things turned sour from that point. The Wildcats made the most of a number of breaks that went their way, outscoring the Eagles 13-2 from that point including an 11-0 run to close out the third quarter with a 42-33 lead.

During that run, Lawrence County (14-4, 6-3) cashed in on 8-of-9 free throws, including 4-of-4 off a pair of technical fouls called on Shelbyville.

The Eagles got as close as five points twice in the fourth quarter but the Wildcats connected on 8-of-10 in the final eight minutes to spoil Shelbyville's homecoming.

"We got up five points early in the third quarter then I thought a number of things went against us and that took a toll on our kids," Thomas said. "We got into some foul trouble and we just didn't respond very well."

Lawrence County cashed in on 19-of-27 free throws while Shelbyville sank 9-of-13.

The Eagles were charged with 25 fouls compared to the Wildcats' 17, with a number of those coming late in the game.

Shelbyville managed to dominate the boards, holding a huge 35-22 edge in rebounds, including 13 off the offensive glass. Seth Jarrell led the way with a dozen followed by Nathan Jefferies with six.

Kyle Brink led the winners with 24 points with Shelley Young adding 14 and Taz Garland 10.

Andrews led all scorers with 26, including five 3-pointers while Bobby Wilson contributed 11.

The battle on the court continued after the game as an altercation took place outside the Golden Eagle locker room. School administrators and law enforcement officers responded quickly and took control of the situation.

Shelbyville was scheduled to play Saturday at Wilson Central.