After their performance at home Wednesday in a 57-37 victory over Signal Mountain, East Hamilton's girls look ready for the high school basketball postseason.
The loss may have helped Signal Mountain get ready, too.
East Hamilton (22-6) will enter the upcoming District 5-AAA tournament as the No. 2 seed behind regular-season champion Bradley Central. Both teams have first-round byes and have already secured spots in the Region 3 tournament.
Lady Hurricanes coach Tony Williams liked a lot of what he saw Wednesday. One thing in particular was how his team attacked the Lady Eagles' zone and stretched a 24-19 halftime lead as high as 23 points with less than 2 1/2 minutes to play.
"We've worked on some different things like spreading the ball out," Williams said. "We did a good job of that in the second half. Our ball movement against their halfcourt trap was pretty good. We're going to have to play like that as tournament time gets near. We've got to move the ball to the open person and make some shots."
The Lady Eagles (21-7), who will be competing in the playoffs one classification lower than East Hamilton, were District 7 regular-season champions.
"I think a game like this gives us an idea where we stand against really good ballteams," Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell said, "which is what we're going to be seeing in the next couple of weeks."
The Lady Eagles got off to a 6-0 start Wednesday, but they never scored more than five consecutive points in any stretch the rest of the way. If that isn't testament enough of the Lady Hurricanes' defense, perhaps limiting speedy guard Aryn Sanders to 11 points is.
"If I'm not mistaken, I think Aryn averages 28 points a game and is leading the area in scoring," Williams said. "She's such a phenomenal player; such a phenomenal talent. We used a lot of energy just knowing where she's at. I thought we did a pretty good job of trying to find her.
"It's always going to be something we preach as a coaching staff. Defense has nothing to do with the ball going in the hole."
Maia Rackel was Signal Mountain's second-leading scorer with nine points.
"They're very disciplined, defensively and offensively," Bell said of the Lady 'Canes. "You're only going to get one or two looks at the basket each trip, and we did not shoot the ball well as a team. I thought they shut Aryn down very well. They hold teams low in numbers. They dictated tempo, and we didn't."
East Hamilton was led by Madison Hayes with 15 points. Destyne Black scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half and Kyndall Caudle finished with 10.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.