Seniors shine in Eaglette win

Eaglette Jesse Calvert, bottom, dives for a loose ball as Tullahoma defenders Natalie Rayfiled, left, and Camberleigh Davis battle as well.
(T-G Photo by Gary Johnson)

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Shelbyville Central honored five seniors and rolled to a 63-33 District 8-AAA win over visiting Tullahoma along the way.

Seniors Katlin Buchanan, Jesse Calvert, Janie Graves, Callisha Johnson and Robbie Mahaffey and got the start and combined for 47 points, 22 rebounds and nine steals in their last regular-season home game.

"What a great night for our five seniors. They all contributed to this win and they are all great leaders of this team," Shelbyville coach Lynn Burkey said. "This was just a special night for them."

The win was special in another way as well as it secured a second-place finish in the district while giving the Eaglettes (14-9, 7-3 8-AAA) an opening-round bye in the tournament and a guaranteed berth in the Region 4-AAA tournament.

"Getting that opening-round bye and berth into the region tournament is huge, especially with the region being held here on our home floor," Burkey said. "The fact that this was Senior Night and with everything we had to gain with a win really made this game with Tullahoma important."

Buchanan had the hot hand early, connecting on four 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Eaglettes built an 18-7 lead.

Johnson took control of the game midway through the second frame, scoring seven unanswered points to help lead Shelbyville to a 32-14 advantage at intermission.

"Talk about leadership by example, that's exactly what Katlin Buchanan showed in the first quarter," Burkey said. "She has the potential to do that for us night in and night out and we really need her to do that. Callisha Johnson also has the ability to take over the game at any given point. When she is focused and hitting on all cylinders, she is really good."

The Eaglettes led 47-19 at the 3:22 mark of the third stanza until Tullahoma canned three unanswered 3-pointers by three different players to get within 47-28.

From that point until the end of the game, Shelbyville's swarming defense held the Lady Wildcats (3-23, 0-10) to only five points with only three coming in the fourth quarter.

"We were scuffling in and out different players and lost our focus for a couple of minutes in the third quarter," Burkey said. "Focus is the key word for this team in the postseason. When we maintain our focus, we don't have many breakdowns. There's no doubt in my mind that we've gotten better at that, but we've still got a ways to go."

Graves finished with 22 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Buchanan pitched in 16. Kelsie Smith added 14 along with eight rebounds.

Danae Thornburg paced Tullahoma with nine points.

The Eaglettes held a huge 45-20 advantage on the boards, including 20 offensive rebounds.

Shelbyville travels to Cookeville on Friday night at 6:30.