MANCHESTER, Tenn. – In a rematch of last season’s D9-4A title game that No. 1 seed Shelbyville Central (18-12, 5-3) won by four, this time it was the No. 3 seed Lincoln County Falcons (20-7, 4-4) who prevailed in a tight one, 62-61, inside of ‘The Patch” on Tuesday.

The Golden Eagles had a chance to win this back-and-forth affair after Reese Smith missed a pair of free throws with 5.3 seconds to go, but Tae’Shawn Shelton’s straight-on, off-balance 16-footer came up just short as the buzzer sounded. 

“Our guys definitely fought, and I’m proud of them,” said SCHS’ head coach Shane Young, “They did just about everything they could, we just ended up on the wrong end of the stick tonight.”

Malek Johnson, a senior guard for the Golden Eagles, was a star on Tuesday, putting in a team-high 18 points with seven of them coming in the fourth quarter alone. Jasiah Berry added 10 points, and was a force to be reckoned with inside as Lincoln County simply had no matchup for him. Berry finished with 10 points, but he didn’t shoot a single free throw.

Shelbyville's Malek Johnson (5) drives to the basket in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's loss to Lincoln County. Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points to lead the Golden Eagles.

T-G Staff Photo - Noah Maddox

“Mook [Malek Johnson] has started a couple years for us,” Young said, “This year, we’ve asked him to come off the bench, and he’s done a really good job all season. Any given night, anyone on our team can have a big game. We have faith that both him and Jasiah [Berry] will come in and do their job to put us in a position to have a chance to win. They definitely played their butts off. We just have to get Jasiah [Berry] the ball in better ways.”

A heavy point of contention both during and after the game was the free throw disparity between the two sides. Shelbyville Central was called for 23 fouls compared to the Falcons’ nine despite both teams being extremely aggressive in attacking the paint. Lincoln County made seven threes, and they finished 15-of-20 at the charity stripe. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles made a concerted effort to pound the ball inside with Jasiah Berry early and often, and continued their paint pressure all night long, resulting in just four made three-pointers as a team. Incredibly, Shelbyville Central shot just six free throws for the entire game. 

“Props to Lincoln County, I don’t want to take any credit away from them,” Young said, “They did a great job, and Reese [Smith] is a helluva player, but there are some things that we don’t get that everybody else gets when it comes to the whistle and it’s starting to get a little frustrating.”

Despite the free throw differential, the most impactful and controversial call was not a foul, but a missed traveling violation. As the clock ticked down below 10 seconds, there was a heavy scramble for the ball on the Lincoln County end of the floor. It resulted in Maddox Franklin, who finished with 16 points on the night, ascending on a corner three. When he saw a Golden Eagle flying out of the air to contest his shot, Franklin brought the ball down to dribble after his feet left the floor for what should have been an easy traveling call for any one of the three officials. Instead, after two quick passes, Elijah Parks knocked down a corner three-pointer at the horn to give the Falcons a four-point lead, 43-39, at the end of the third quarter.

“I know it’s hard to stay in the game after something like that happens, and it’s been hard,” said Young about the sequence at the end of the third quarter, “We just keep trying to keep them engaged despite how it can reach a point where it feels like there is almost nothing they can do to overcome that kind of whistle.”

Despite the adversity, Shelbyville Central responded once again in the fourth quarter, storming back with a 9-2 run in the first 2:45 of the period to take a 48-45 lead after Jordan Taylor punctuated a fastbreak with a slam.

Shelbyville's Jordan Taylor (1) goes up for a huge fourth quarter slam in Tuesday's loss to the Falcons. Taylor finished with 10 points on the night.

T-G Staff Photo - Noah Maddox

Less than a minute later, with the Golden Eagles holding onto a 50-49 lead, one of the three officials decided to disrupt the game and forced a lengthy stoppage to have some fans removed. Perhaps the fan(s) had a point, because at the 3:04 mark with the Falcons clinging to a 52-50 lead, the fouls were 5-to-0 in favor of the No. 3 seed. 

Coming out of the Shelbyville Central timeout, Jordan Taylor, who had picked up his fourth foul minutes earlier, was reinserted. He connected on a crucial and-one to both tie the game and re-take the lead, 53-52, with just over two minutes to go. Johnson split a pair of free throws to go up by two with 1:50 left, but then Parks found room outside the arc to drill his fourth three-pointer of the game to give the Falcons a 55-54 lead at the 1:25 mark.

On the ensuing possession, Johnson used a ball screen from Berry to free himself up for a 15-foot jumper that gave the Golden Eagles a one-point lead with 1:15 to go. Unfortunately for the top-seeded Golden Eagles, this would be the last time they held a lead as Smith once again found himself at the free throw line after drawing a foul while setting a screen. Smith converted on both, and after Shelbyville Central missed a three, Smith split a pair to go up by two, 58-56, with 43.0 seconds left.

Coming down looking to tie or take the lead, Shane Young opted to go for the tie with a Taylor drive to the basket, but he lost the ball after taking a ton of contact inside the arc, resulting in more free throws for the Falcons. Franklin made both to go up two scores with 25.1 seconds left before Taylor converted on a floater to cut the lead back down to 60-58. Franklin again made a pair, and then Shelton nailed a deep three at the top-of-the-key with 7.4 seconds remaining.

Out of the timeout, Smith got the ball and walked 80 feet to the free throw line, but he missed both with just 5.3 seconds to go. This left the door wide open for Shelbyville, but Shelton’s heavily contested 16-foot pull-up came up just short off the front of the rim at the buzzer.

Shelton finished with 13 points on three threes and a pair of dunks for Shelbyville. Jordan Taylor added 10 points, Berry scored 10 points, and Johnson scored a team-high 18 points.

Reese Smith led all scorers with a game-high 23 points, Maddox Franklin scored 16 points, and Elijah Parks also added 16 points for the Falcons.

Early on, it looked like Lincoln County was in a load of trouble on both ends. Shelbyville opened with a 13-5 run from the jump in the first 5:37, and they eventually held a 17-9 lead at the end of the opening period.

In the second stanza, Shelbyville managed to grow its lead back up to eight points, 23-15, at the halfway point of the quarter, but the Falcons managed to knock down a couple of threes to help trim the lead back down to three, 26-23, heading into the halftime locker room despite Johnson’s 11 first-half points along with Berry’s six.

Coming out for the second half, Lincoln County settled into the game, outscoring Shelbyville Central 20-13 after the controversial buzzer-beating three-pointer from Parks to take a 43-39 lead heading into a highly competitive final frame.

The Golden Eagles outscored the Falcons, 22-19, but they came up just one point shy in their district title defense.

The Boys' District 6-AAAA awards were handed out at the conclusion of the game, and multiple Golden Eagles were honored (see pictures above).

Shelbyville Central falls to 18-12 overall. The Golden Eagles are set to host the third-place team from District 5-AAAA, East Hamilton, on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m in the Region 3-AAAA quarterfinals.

SHELBYVILLE: M. Johnson 18 (1), T. Shelton (3), J. Berry 10, J. Taylor 10, T. Cannon 4, J. Lee 4, J. Conditt 2.

LINCOLN CO.: R. Smith 23 (1), M. Franklin 16 (2), E. Parks 16 (4), D. Ogle 4, B. Bryen 2, L. Leverette 1.