When Notre Dame went ahead in the closing seconds of the District 7-AA girls' high school basketball game Friday at Signal Mountain, Lady Irish coach Wes Moore immediately called a timeout so he could set his defense.
Moore's concern with 10.1 seconds remaining was his team losing high-scoring Lady Eagles guard Aryn Sanders in transition.
Having to run a half-court play, Signal Mountain still found a way to get the ball in Sanders' hands, and her contested layup at the buzzer lifted the Lady Eagles to a 39-38 victory.
Signal Mountain (13-4, 4-1), which lost a district game at Grundy County on Dec. 16, now is tied with rival Notre Dame (12-6, 4-1) in the league standings.
"We came in knowing we had to win," said Sanders, whose buzzer-beating shot was her third in the last two seasons. "Not only did we need the district win, it was Notre Dame."
Both teams have three other district opponents scheduled before playing each other again Jan. 30 at Notre Dame.
"It was a big win on a lot of different levels," Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell said. "It was big for our program. We're tied now, but we've got a long way to go."
Until Emma Higgins picked up a loose ball underneath and scored with 11 seconds to go, the Lady Irish had not led since 4-3.
Bell said the way the final play developed was somewhat like they talked about in the huddle during the late timeout.
"We talked about getting the ball to Maia. She's a freshman, but she's a great athlete," Bell said of Maia Rackel, who made the pass to Sanders from near the free-throw line. "She threw it up and Aryn went backdoor. We figured they'd pick up full court, so we thought the lane would be open a little bit. We executed when it mattered. It was a battle all game."
Sanders' game-winner gave her 19 points for the game.
"The girl that was guarding me was watching the ball," Sanders said. "I was looking at Maia thinking, 'Lob it. I can grab it. I can put it up.'"
Said Moore: "We couldn't get one last stop. We did everything we could do. There were were some bobbled dribbles, and that pass from the high post, I think we got a finger on it. The ball just didn't bounce our way."
Signal Mountain led the rest of the first half after taking the lead at 5-4. The Lady Irish tied the game at 15 on Morgan Cantrell's two free throws to start the second-half scoring, but the Lady Eagles had a 15-4 run from there and took their largest lead.
Signal Mountain missed chances to pad its lead late, going 1-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 1:22. Two misses were front ends of bonus situations, although the ball went out of bounds off Notre Dame after the first one. Overall, the Lady Eagles made 3 of 10 free throws.
The Lady Irish were in the bonus 15 seconds into the fourth quarter and in the double bonus the last 3:44. But they were 2-for-8 free-throw shooting in the final period and 8-for-19 in the game.
"It probably shouldn't have come down to that play," Moore said.
Sanders' best scoring support came from Lydia Bledsoe with eight points.
Cantrell topped Notre Dame with 19 points, including four 3-point goals. Adia Colvin scored her 13 points after halftime.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.