MANCHESTER — Shelbyville Central's Golden Eaglettes battled Warren County till the end and played much better despite suffering a 53-35 loss in the opening round of the District 6-AAAA Tournament hosted by Coffee County High School on Monday night.
“Warren County is a talented, athletically gifted team. They are the most athletic, best transition team in our league. They’re difficult to defend and to score against. There’s a reason they tied for the regular season championship,” Eaglette coach Kyle Turnham said.
Warren County held a slim 5-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 23-12 at the intermission.
The Eaglettes trailed 37-18 going into the fourth quarter but rallied and cut the lead to 43-33 with 2:54 led to play when Sammie Brown nailed a
three-pointer from deep in the corner.
“Defensively, we had a difficult time keeping them out of the paint, either in transition or in the half court. We struggled with containment at the point of attack and our gap support wasn’t as good as we needed it to be against a team that offensively talented. Their shooting percentage inside the arc was too high plus they made enough threes to do damage,” Turnham said.
The Lady Pioneers closed out the game with a 10-2 run to secure the win.
Mia Hobbs led the winners' with 16 points while Kyra Perkins contributed 13.
Paige Blackburn's 12 points paced Shelbyville Central.
“Offensively, we had some success early getting the ball into the mid-post against their zone but we didn’t shoot the ball well enough from the three-point line to match them,” Turnham said.  
Even though the game went down as a loss, Turnham was still pleased with the effort of everyone who stepped on the floor for the Eaglettes.
““I’m very proud of our battle. We were really good in the first quarter, but got knocked back on our heels a little in the second and third quarters. Even then, we battled back to cut it to 10 but just couldn’t finish it off. The girls gave a fantastic physical effort the entire way,” he said. 
The Eaglettes face Franklin County on Friday night at 6 in the consolation game then will complete in the region tournament next week.

Shelbyville Central 4 8 6 17 — 35
Warren County 5 18 14 16 — 53

Shelbyville Central: Jaz Western 2, Yasmine McFarland 1, Paige Blackburn 12, Lilly Brown 8, Sammie Brown 8, Lanaya Young 4.
Warren County: Kyra Perkins 13, Sable Winfree 2, Shelby Smartt 9, Mia Hobbs 16, Savannah Winfree 8, Lex Verge 2, Brienne Kelsey 3.
3-point goals - Warren County (4): Hobbs 2, Perkins, Smartt; Shelbyville Central (1): S. Brown
Halftime score: Warren Co. 23, Shelbyville Central 12.