GARY JOHNSON
Sports Writer
MANCHESTER – It was a game where Shelbyville Central fans left the gym shaking their head as the Golden Eagles were looking for back-to-back district championships but came up a little short in a 62-61 loss to Lincoln County in the District 6 AAAA tournament championship Tuesday night at Coffee County High School.
“Not the outcome we wanted for sure,” Shelbyville Central Coach Shane Young said, “You always want to repeat and that was one of our goals. We’ve been here before and we want to get to that next spot that we haven’t achieved. Last year after we won the district we didn’t come back ready to play in the opening round of the region. Hopefully this year we will go in with a different mindset. Even though this was one of our goals, our main goal is to get to the state tournament. We can still accomplish that.”
The most telling statistic of the game was the number of fouls for each team.
The Golden Eagles (19-12) were called for 23 fouls compared to Lincoln’s County’s nine.
In the fourth quarter alone, Shelbyville Central was whistled 10 times, twice as many as the Falcons.
There was also a considerable difference in the number of free throw shots that was an advantage for the Falcons as well.
Lincoln County cashed in on 15-of-20 shots from the charity stripe compared to Shelbyville Central’s 3-of-6.
“I thought we were in control of this game early and then it seemed like we had a number of fouls called against us that were questionable as the game went on,” Young said. “We can only control what we can control and that is to play hard and our guys did that for sure.”
After Lincoln County missed a pair of free throws with 5.3 second left to play, Shelbyville Central senior Tae’ Shawn Shelton fired off a nice shot just inside the free throw line that just rimmed out.
The Golden Eagles (19-12) took control of the game early, posting a 17-9 lead at the end of the first frame.
The Falcons connected on three of their seven 3-pointers in the second quarter to keep the game close and cut the lead to 26-23 at halftime.
Lincoln County outscored the Golden Eagles 20-12 in the third period and held a 43-38 advantage into the fourth quarter.
“We did make some costly turnovers and give Lincoln County credit for turning a number of these into points on their end,” Young said.
The Golden Eagles committed 14 turnovers compared to the Falcons’ eight.
Reese Smith led Lincoln County with 23 points while Maddox Franklin and Elijah Parks each contributed 16.
Shelbyville Central featured a balanced scoring effort with Tae’ Shawn Shelton collecting 13 points, including three treys, while Jordan Taylor and Jasiah Berry joined in double figures with 10 apiece.
The Golden Eagles will entertain East Hamilton (13-12) from Ooltewah, TN in the Region 5 AAAA tournament Saturday night at 7.
Lincoln County 9 14 20 19 – 62
Shelbyville Central 17 9 12 22 – 61
Lincoln County (62) – Reease Smith 23, Maddox Franklin 16, Elijah Parks 16, Diesen Ogle 4, Brody Bryan 2, Logan Leverette 1.
Shelbyville Central (61) – Malek Johnson 18, Tae’ Shawn Shelton 13, Jordan Taylor 10, Jasiah Berry 10, Tommie Cannon 4, Jevon Lee 4, Jack Conditt 2.
3-point goals – LC (7) – Parks 4, Franklin 2, Smith; SC (4): Shelton 3, Johnson 1.
Halftime – SC 26, LC 23.
Shelbyville Central’s Malek Johnson pitched in 18 points to ;lead the Golden Eagles in scoring in the District 6 AAAA championship game against Lincoln County on Tuesday night.
Shelbyville Central’s Golden Eagles dropped a close 62-61 decision to Lincoln County on Tuesday night in the District 6 AAAA tournament.