Wildcat senior Alan Prince battles Shelbyville's Robbie Rowland for rebounding position in Tuesday night's district championship game.

  FAYETTEVILLE---The Tullahoma Wildcats made a good run at the district championship Tuesday night, but in the end, the best team in the district, the Shelbyville Golden Eagles, finished off their perfect district season with a 67-54 win over the Wildcats.
  The good news is that both teams were already guaranteed a regional tournament game at home Saturday night by virtue of their appearance in Tuesday’s district championship game. The Wildcats will play White County, the number-three team from District 7-AAA, at home Saturday at 7 p.m., and Shelbyville will be at home against Blackman.
  Tuesday’s championship matchup was closer than the final score would indicate much of the night, but Shelbyville never trailed. In fact, the Eagles came out of the gate red hot while the Wildcats couldn’t buy a basket, and the score was 16-3 before Tullahoma finally found its footing.

Cass Barnes was named District 8-AAA 'Player of the Year' following Tuesday's championship game.

  The Wildcats cut the deficit to four, 26-22, at the half with Alan Prince leading the comeback with strong inside play. Adam Barnett warmed up from beyond the three-point line after a cold start, and the Cats seemed poised to make a serious run at the championship trophy in the second half.
  The Cats missed several chances to tie the game or take the lead midway through the third quarter, and Shelbyville put together a good run that had them leading by nine with 6:30 left in the game. The Wildcats made one more serious run on a basket by district “Player of the Year” Cass Barnes, a free throw by Barnett and a three-pointer by Dominique Williams. That made it 46-43 with 5:08 left in the game, but the Eagles responded as they had the entire game. Andrews and Haile nailed back-to-back three-pointers to push the lead back to nine with 3:17 left in the game, and Tullahoma was never able to challenge again.
  It was a 10-point game with two minutes to go when the Wildcats started fouling to get the ball back, but the Eagles finished off a 20 of 26 performance at the free-throw line to open as much as a 16-point lead.
  Shelbyville shot 54.1 percent for the game (20 of 37) while Tullahoma shot 47.4 percent (18 of 38). The Eagles had a 26-17 rebounding advantage, and both teams did well taking care of the ball with just eight Shelbyville turnovers and seven from the Cats.

Adam Barnett received 'All-District' recognition after Tuesday night's contest.