SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – After trailing by 12 points in the first half, Keshia Jarrett’s Eaglettes (4-6) took their first lead of the night with 2:25 remaining after Janiya Leslie connected on a seven-foot floater en route to Shelbyville’s 57-47 win over the Summit Spartans (2-5) on Thursday night. 

Kenley Patton’s layup with 70 seconds remaining put Shelbyville up by three, 50-47, before Leslie nailed an ultimate “no, no, YES” three-pointer on the next possession that was the final nail in the Spartans coffin. The Eaglettes held the visitors to just a single point in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback.

“She’s lucky she made that,” Jarrett said postgame with a laugh, “I was a little nervous but it went in, so I couldn’t say too much.”

Leslie finished with a team-high 16 points, Jada Berry chipped in with 12, and Jayda Frazier scored nine of her 11 points in the second half. 

“I feel like we really needed this to boost their confidence a bit, and they earned every bit of it,” said Jarrett. “We came out flat, but we just kept fighting and fighting and fighting. We didn’t execute the whole time, but what we didn’t do was hold our heads down. I feel like our momentum and our energy is what really took over the game, especially late.”

Jayda Frazier (5) scored 11 points on Thursday with nine of them coming in the second half of Shelbyville's 57-47 win over the Spartans.

T-G Staff Photo - Noah Maddox

Bridget Allee led Summit with a game-high 17 points, but the Eaglettes held her to just a single made free throw in the second half. Sam Malcolm took over some of the scoring load from Allee in the second half, scoring 11 of her 13 in the final two periods, but it was ultimately not enough to overcome the intense Shelbyville defense. In total, Summit committed 14 turnovers, and shot just 17/25 (68%) from the free throw line. 

“We prepared really well throughout the week. They’re finally starting to mesh with each other and you can see the chemistry kind of coming together despite us having some injuries right now. But, in the end, we had players that stepped up and played and got the job done,” Jarrett explained.

Dara Frazier, the Eaglettes’ dynamic freshman point guard, was seen on the bench in a walking boot during the game, but the hosts were ultimately able to overcome her absence in the late stages of the game.

Early on, Summit jumped out to a 17-5 lead at the end of the opening period. Shelbyville looked a little discombobulated on offense against the Spartans 3-2 zone without their point guard, and Allee was leading the charge for  the visitors on the other end. Allee accounted for seven of her team’s points in the quarter, and the Spartans connected on three three-pointers in the first eight minutes.

In the second quarter, Shelbyville finally seemed to establish some semblance of momentum on the offensive end as they grew more comfortable playing against the zone, but Allee took things up a notch, hitting a pair of triples as she finished with nine more points to give her team a 29-24 lead heading into the halftime locker room. 

To start the second half, the Eaglettes could not slow down Sam Malcolm, who had missed a good chunk of the first half due to foul trouble. The Spartans’ center earned four trips to the charity stripe in the third quarter alone, leading to her scoring 11 of Summit’s 17 points in the period to extend the lead to 46-38 heading into the final frame.

However, Shelbyville decided to erase the deficit by coming out and playing one of its best quarters of the season, outscoring Summit 19-1 in the fourth quarter en route to the 10-point victory.