Eaglettes wilt after strong start

COOKEVILLE -- Shelbyville Central failed to throw a knockout punch early on the road in a 59-46 loss to Cookeville in a non-district matchup Friday night.

The Eaglettes (14-10) jumped out to an 8-0 lead and looked to have brought their "A-game," but inconsistent play from that point proved costly.

"I don't have an explanation other than when this team plays hard for 32 minutes, plays smart and plays together we're a real good team," Shelbyville coach Lynn Burkey said. "At the start of the game we did all those things. Then, for reasons that are beyond me, we stopped doing them.

"Our defense checked out and we became very unaggressive on offense. We did make a little run towards the end of the game but by that time we had fouled too much and they were making free throws."

Graves started the game with a pair of 3-pointers and another basket but the Lady Cavaliers (16-11) responded to close out the first quarter with a 17-4 run to make the score 17-12.

The second stanza wasn't very eventful with Shelbyville scoring seven points to lead 23-19 at intermission.

Eaglette senior Janie Graves was called for her fourth foul at the 6:28 mark of the third quarter and later fouled out at the 6:50 point of the fourth.

The Lady Cavaliers scored six unanswered points to start the second half and led 37-25 with 2:02 left in the third until Shelbyville gained some momentum with an aggressive full-court press and closed the gap to 40-33 going into the fourth quarter.

Cookeville regrouped and outscored the Eaglettes 21-13 in the final eight minutes while cashing in on 9-of-11 free throw attempts in the final 2:40.

Four Lady Cavaliers scored in double figures as the team shot 54 percent from the field and 60 percent from 3-point range, connecting on 6-of-10 treys.

Hannah Goolsby pitched in a game-high 18 points, Tationia Johnson followed with 14, Hallie Edgington collected 12 and Julie Brooks added 10.

Sophomore Kelsie Smith led the Eaglettes with 14 while Graves added 10.

Cookeville held a 26-20 edge on the boards.

"I know we're a better team than showed up tonight but for us to be successful in the postseason we've got to play hard the entire game every night like we've done a couple of times over the last few weeks," Burkey said.

Shelbyville closes regular season at No. 3 Riverdale on Monday at 6:30 p.m.