A standing room only crowd and two dueling student sections rattling the rafters, helped set the stage for the 5A, Area 6 championship game Monday night,

with the Shelby County Wildcats (17-11) defeating the Chilton County Tigers in an overtime thriller 66-61.

Missed opportunities under the basket, turnovers, and unmade free throws for the Wildcats allowed the Tigers to gather a 26-15 lead going into halftime.

Toward the end of the third quarter, SCHS managed to pull within eight points of the Tiger&8217;s lead, their closest deficit of the night.

Chilton would not go away quietly as the fourth quarter ticked away and SCHS anxiously saw their hopes of the championship slipping away.

Senior, Josh Dikis, rose to the occasion for his Wildcat team to nail three 3-point shots from long range to bring the Wildcats within four points with 2:45 left to play. He led the team with 19 points on the night.

Before the home crowd could turn their heads, the Wildcats knotted the score 56-56 to send the game into overtime.

The Wildcats went on to out score the Tigers in overtime, 10-5.

As the game rolled by, Wildcat Coach Charles Dickinson saw something he knew all too well about his team that entered area play with a 4-7 record.

&8220;Our season was wrapped up in this one game tonight.

We started off the season very poor, in the middle we started learning how to do things right, and at the end we began to win,&8221; Dickinson said.

&8220;I am proud of my guys for facing that type of adversity and being able to turn it around and use their own emotions to carry it out.

Those are the things you talk about in practice &045; staying with it and never giving up.&8221;

Tyrone Buie followed Dikis with 16 points and eight assists, while Richard Sutton added 13 points. Along with brother, Darian, the Sutton duo pounded the glass with a combined 19 rebounds.

Deundre Hubbard led the Tigers with 22 points with Theo Jones adding 15.

The Wildcats will host Dallas County at home Friday night in the AHSAA sub-regional