Poor shooting plagued Shelby County in the Class 4A, Area 9 championship game as the host Wildcats lost to Childersburg in a game that remained close from the opening tip to the final buzzer.

Shelby County was dismal shooting from the floor and managed to make only four three-pointers out of 32 attempts from outside the arc.

&uot;I thought we played with a lot of energy,&uot; said Shelby County coach Charles Dickinson said.

&uot;But we are a shooting team and we shot the ball terrible from the field, especially the three-point line.

&uot;If we shoot our normal 38 to 39 percent, then we make a pretty good game out of it.&uot;

Despite the poor shooting, Shelby County kept the contest close and seemed to have a chance to win the game until it was charged with an intentional and technical foul for calling a timeout in the game’s final minutes.

The problem was that the Wildcats had already used all of their timeouts earlier in the game.

Childersburg iced the 68-65 win with free-throws as Shelby County was forced to foul often to stay alive in the game’s final seconds.

The Wildcats were led by sophomore center Cortez Cotton with 25 points and five blocks.

Brandon Burns also had a big night with 16 points, 17 rebounds and four steals.

Skylar Patterson and Ashley Montgomery each had 13 points and Montgomery added eight rebounds, five assists and five steals for Shelby County in the championship game.

The Wildcats made it to the title game by knocking off Jemison 79-51 in Thursday’s semifinal.

Patterson led Shelby County with 18 points in that contest, with Burns scoring 15 and Cotton and Stephen Barrows each scoring 10 points.

Shelby County (19-8) will travel to Alexandria (23-3) to square off in the 4A, Northeast sub-regional on Friday at 7 p.m.

Childersburg had defeated Chelsea in its semifinal game, 53-44, before knocking off the Wildcats in the championship game.

Grant Sullivan had 18 points for the Hornets and Joey Brewer had 10 but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Tigers who ended Chelsea’s season with the win.

Chelsea’s girls (7-19) will hit the road to take on Cleburne County (16-8) in the 4A, Northeast sub-regional on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Joining Chelsea in girls sub-regional action will be Indian Springs (15-6), who will host Midfield (8-14) in Class 3A.

In 4A’s Southwest sub-regional, the Montevallo girls (10-11) will travel to Demopolis (18-4).

The Bulldogs defeated Dallas County 50-45 last Tuesday to earn a spot opposite Bibb County in the Area 7 championship game.

Samantha Spradlin had 12 points and Ashley Ebrahimi added eight against Dallas County.

Spradlin and Kinyatta Hayes each had 10 points in the Bulldogs loss to Bibb County on Friday.

Spradlin, Hayes and Haley Dennis were each named to the area all-tournament team for Montevallo.

Oak Mountain’s girls (21-13) will travel to Huffman (21-6) for the 6A, Northeast sub-regional Thursday at 7 p.m.

The Eagles defeated John Carroll then fell to Vestavia Hills 55-45 and Spain Park 57-43 in the Area 6 tournament at Vestavia Hills.

Oak Mountain’s boys team (20-8) will also represent Eagles basketball in the 6A sub-regionals. They will host Hewitt-Trussville (21-9) Friday night at 7 p.m. at Oak Mountain High School