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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

COLUMBIANA – The Shelby County Wildcats rolled into the postseason with one of their most dominant offensive performances of the season.

Shelby County defeated the Center Point Eagles 82-53 on Friday, Jan. 31 to close out the regular season with a win on Shooting2Change Night, which aims to foster autism acceptance through athletics.

Sutton Reed dominated early for the Wildcats as the freshman hit a trio of 3-pointers to kick off the day. He scored nine of his team’s 17 first-quarter points while Shelby County kept Center Point at bay on the defensive side.

As a result, the Wildcats went up 17-9 at the end of the first quarter and only increased their lead from there.

While Reed went scoreless in the second quarter, he got plenty of help from his teammates as Caleb Endfinger scored eight points to get himself into double figures for the half and Nate Byrne, Lawson Starnes and CJ Moore each hit a pair of field goals.

Shelby County combined for 25 points in the second quarter to increase its halftime lead to 42-23.

Reed started heating up again in the third quarter with a pair of 3-pointers, scoring six points in the third alongside Andres McGinnis, who scored a trio of field goals to get into double figures.

The Eagles started finding more success from the field in the third quarter, but the Wildcats still led 60-42 heading into the fourth quarter.

Shelby County’s offense continued firing in the fourth, scoring 22 points in the final eight minutes thanks to five points from Braxton Lawson and a pair of field goals each from McGinnis, Montez White and Tyson Duncan.

In the end, the Wildcats walked away with the 29-point win to end the regular season on a high note.

Reed led the way with 15 points off five 3-pointers. Endfinger and Duncan got into double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively. White and Byrne each scored six points, Moore and Lawson had five points apiece and Starnes finished with four points.