They’re fighters.”

SCHS Head Coach Shane Young

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The 2-seed Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (14-14, 7-3) trailed by as many as five points in the fourth quarter against 4-seed Lincoln County (11-16, 5-5), but found a way to close out the District 9-AAAA Championship, 60-56, inside of Rick Insell Gymnasium on Tuesday night. 

“It’s just a testament to these guys,” second-year head coach Shane Young said postgame. “They’ve been playing hard all year; we’ve already gone through a lot of adversity, and I told them that adversity is going to happen, runs will happen, but we just have to stay the course and stay in the moment and our time will come.”

“They’re fighters.”

Young’s Golden Eagles did just that, digging deep to win the program’s first District Championship since the 2007-08 season. Shelbyville Central also snapped a streak of three-straight losses in District Championship Game appearances dating back to 2008-09.

Lincoln County, who upset the top-seeded Warren County Pioneers on Saturday, 54-51, looked like they were on their way to pulling off another shocker as they entered the fourth quarter trailing by just two points, 41-39. The Falcons led by as many as five points, 50-45, with five minutes left, but then Shelbyville Central bowed up defensively, closing on a 15-6 run over the final 4:45 to win the title.

All-District performer, Jevon Lee, who led Shelbyville with 16 PPG during district play in the regular season, took over for the Golden Eagles in the second half. Lee scored 14 of his game-high 20 points in the second half alone, including the go-ahead old-fashioned three-point play with less than 40 seconds left to give Shelbyville a 58-56 lead. 

Coming out of a timeout with 41.5 seconds left, Young drew up a play to get the scorching-hot Lee a touch around the basket. 

“Jevon [Lee] had the mismatch…Tae had the bigger guy on him, kind of physical, so we knew we could iso Von and let him go to his strong hand,” Young explained. “At Coffee County I should have drawn up a play for him [Lee] because he was hot in that game. We lost that game by one, and I actually drew up the play for Tae, and they doubled Tae, so this time around I felt like I learned from that loss and had to go back the opposite way to make sure we got it right this time.”

Tae’Shawn Shelton finished with 16 points of his own for the Golden Eagles, including eight points in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback. 

Lincoln County’s All-District guards, Reese Smith and Maddox Franklin, put up 17 and 16 points, respectively, but shot just a combined 7-15 at the free throw line. Elijah Parks chipped in with 10 points as the only other double-digit scorer for the Falcons. 

Despite connecting on eight threes compared to the Golden Eagles one, Lincoln County’s free throw woes as a team ended up costing them a district title. They shot 47% (8-17) from the charity stripe as a team while Shelbyville Central shot a moderately better 68% (11-16) and made just enough to close out the visitors.

This game was tight from the jump, with neither team holding a double-digit lead at any point. The Golden Eagles held a slim 12-10 lead after the opening period despite seven early points from Parks while Lee had all six of his first-half points in the first quarter. 

Shelbyville took their largest lead of the night, 23-15, early in the second quarter, but then Reese Smith began to take over, getting to the lane at will and sparking a 10-2 run to tie the game at 25 going into the halftime locker room. Smith started the quarter by connecting on a three, then he scored a trio of floaters in the lane to finish with nine points in the period. Tommie Cannon, stepping in for Shelbyville’s injured All-District guard, Jordan Taylor, scored all nine of his points in the first half with seven coming in the second quarter.

Coming out in the second half, Jevon Lee looked like a man on a mission. Lincoln County could not stop Lee below the free throw line, and the sophomore scored nine points to lead all scorers in the third quarter and give the Golden Eagles a 41-39 lead going into the final frame. 

As the clock slowly ticked on, Lincoln County connected on a trio of three-pointers to open the fourth quarter. First it was Franklin from way downtown, then Parks connected, and finally Ridge Jones nailed one from the corner, putting the Falcons up 50-45 with just over five minutes to go. 

However, the Golden Eagles showcased some newly forged championship mettle, digging deep and closing out the Falcons with a 15-6 run over the final five minutes.

“That means a lot, but this is really for the boys though,” Young said about his team’s resiliency. “This summer, when we lost last year and all the stuff that we went through, I remember Tommie Cannon coming in and saying ‘Coach, we on the track’ and they went and ran. At that point I knew that we had a different team.”

Young also gave a shout out to Kyler Trice, who’s basketball career came to an abrupt and unexpected end at Lincoln County a season ago.

“You know, it’s special. We wanted to get over the hump, and we really wanted to win this one for [Kyler] Trice,” Young continued. “He came in the locker room pregame and told us to go get it. He helped us all summer, put in the work with us, helping these guys, and when it came down to the moment, that’s what it was, so for me it’s all about everyone that came before us and getting this opportunity to bring it back to Shelbyville is something special.”

The Golden Eagles forced a pair of missed threes from Franklin, and after Zyon Bonner split a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds left to go up by four points, Shelbyville Central began to celebrate. Smith’s last-second heave fell harmlessly off the rim, and the Golden Eagles officially clinched the District 9-AAAA Championship, 60-56. 

Shelbyville Central will now turn their sights to the Region 5-AAAA Tournament. The Golden Eagles are scheduled to host Nolensville out of District 10-4A on Saturday night, LIVE on WLIJ  98.7 and AM 1580 starting at 6:45 p.m.