East Hamilton's offense may not always be in synch every night, but the Lady Hurricanes know they have a hounding defense they can rely on. On Tuesday, the combination of that defense and a poor shooting night by McMinn County led to a 46-21 victory for the Lady 'Canes.
East Hamilton (20-6, 7-2) solidified its hold on second place in the TSSAA District 5-AAA basketball standings.
"Second gets an automatic bid to the region," said East Hamilton coach Tony Williams, whose team trails only Bradley Central, which would also receive a bye into the Region 3 tournament, in the district standings. "That's been our goal all year. We wanted to have the opportunity to make it to the region this year, but that's not saying we'd be satisfied by just being happy to be there."
The Lady Cherokees' Ebony Kelley got the scoring started Tuesday by grabbing a rebound and driving the length of the floor for a layup 35 seconds into the game. They did not make another basket the rest of the first half and went to the break down 20-8.
At the end of a 6-6 first quarter, Williams said he listened to some advice from assistant coach Bailey Reeves.
"I was a little bit frustrated with the kids at the start. She's pretty good at reading people and gave me a little bit of calm," Williams said of Reeves. "She's got such a great temperature on these girls."
East Hamilton's pressure began to dictate tempo in the second quarter and on into the second half, where foul trouble led to McMinn County coach Tim McPhail having to make some backcourt substitutions.
"They're really athletic and really long," McPhail said of the Lady 'Canes. "Their pressure sped us up just enough to get us out of our comfort zone."
That led to a variety of turnovers from walking calls to crosscourt passes being intercepted.
"You can get away with that against a lot of people," McPhail said. "Not against these folks."
All that was in addition to the Lady Cherokees' cold shooting. That even carried over to the free-throw line where they were 8-of-22.
"It has been absolutely contagious the last three weeks," McPhail said of the cold shooting. "When you devote 45 minutes of your practice time to shooting the ball, there is no explanation for it. But we'll continue to lose games if we don't find a way to put the ball in the hole."
Madison Hayes' 14 points topped East Hamilton, which made 15 of 29 free throws. Kyndall Caudle contributed 10 points and De'Zah Lacy chipped in with seven.
McMinn County (11-12, 4-5), which came in tied for third in the league standings with Walker Valley, was led by Kelley with seven points.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.