Ron Davis pulled out all the stops in Sequatchie County's District 7-AA girls' basketball opener at Signal Mountain.
Diamond-and-one. Playing his starters through foul trouble. There was no stone left unturned and no page in the playbook left unflipped for the Lady Indians coach.
For Davis, though, his best weapon was sitting next to him with a cast on her arm.
Senior standout Kaylee Smith, who had averaged more than 28 points per game before breaking her wrist in a Thanksgiving tournament, was forced to watch as Signal Mountain star Aryn Sanders basked in the spotlight in the Lady Eagles' 58-44 win Tuesday night.
"I knew it was going to be difficult," Davis said of his team's first game without the do-it-all Smith. "We started out good (defensively), but we relaxed a little bit and Sanders hit a couple of 3s and got it going."
Sequatchie and Signal played a physical and tight first quarter, and the Lady Indians' combination defense limited Signal to seven points in the first eight minutes. Sanders, who made her only first-quarter shot, was handcuffed early.
"That's the first time this year, but we always know it's a possibility," Signal coach Kendra Bell said of the diamond-and-one defense that put a player on Sanders man-to-man and everyone else in a zone around the basket. "We figured if we just kept running our regular stuff, we'd start getting good looks."
Signal's regular stuff got a jumpstart from freshman Mary Witherspoon, who hit three foul-line jumpers in the second quarter as the Lady Eagles created space. With Witherspoon finding her range -- she made six of eight shots for 12 points -- and versatile guard Brooke Whitmire distributing the ball, Signal pulled away early in the second and third quarters.
A Whitmire-to-Sanders transition basket allowed Signal to stretch the lead to 41-25 with less than a minute to go in the third.
"She's a very solid player," Bell said of Whitmire, who had five points, six rebounds and seven assists in the win. "She and Aryn have such a good chemistry out there and work so well together."
It was magnified against a Sequatchie team that was forced to put players in new roles and even play post Ireland Burch through three first-quarter fouls before she fouled out midway through the third. Without Burch on the floor and without Smith in uniform, the Lady Warriors fought -- getting 11 points and eight rebounds from Allyson Davenport and seven from Jordan Smith -- despite being outmanned.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.