SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (12-14, 7-3) held off a pesky Columbia Central Lions (4-21, 3-7) squad to pick up a 67-63 win on Senior Night inside of Rick Insell Gymnasium on Thursday.

Jevon Lee, Tae’Shawn Shelton, and Malek Johnson all scored in double-figures with 20 points, 16 points, and 14 points, respectively.

The first quarter of the game was slow paced with both teams swapping baskets back and forth down the court several times tying up the game during the period. Shelton dropped in a couple of baskets for four of his points, one of which he hit to beat the buzzer, while Lee added two for six of the opening nine points for the Golden Eagles. 

The real scoring began in the second quarter with Lee banking ten points for the Eagles. He started the quarter hitting a layup that put Shelbyville ahead, 11-10, with 6:47 left in the second and the Eagles held the lead for the rest of the game. The Lions pulled within one at the four minute mark with a score of 15-14 but never pulled ahead. DK Armstrong scored four points in the second term for the Lions. Shelbyville hit the locker room with a six point cushion, 29-23.

Building a larger lead basket by basket. Shelton dunked in one for two, banked in another and added a single free throw to add to his tally of points with five more this quarter for the Eagles and team mates Johnson and Lee tagged four more apiece to collect 13 of Shelbyville's 17 for the third term. IIsiah Humes tapped in four for Columbia Central. The lead never exchanged hands and at the end of the third quarter the Eagles were up by eight points, 46-38.

Eagle Johnson hit five of six from the free throw line and tapped in a bank shot for seven points of his total 14 for the game in the final quarter. Shelton connected with two jump shots and a free throw for five more of his total 16, and Lee hit two more layups for four more of his total 20 during the fourth quarter. Humes ended with 20 points and Armstrong had 14 for the Lions. The score with 15 seconds to go was 67-60, but Humes connected with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from the top-of-the-key to close the gap for Columbia Central. The end score was in favor of the Eagles 67-63.

The Shelbyville Eagles will begin their District 9-AAAA tournament next week in the semi-finals on Saturday, February 22, against the winner of Coffee County and Spring Hill.