When Signal Mountain trailed by five points at the end of the first quarter in Friday's District 6-AA girls' high school basketball game at Signal Mountain, it was almost as though the Lady Eagles had Red Bank's Lady Lions right where they wanted them.
That's because the pace of the game was to Signal Mountain's liking, and the Lady Eagles eventually rode a wave of momentum to a 64-35 victory.
Signal Mountain (4-4, 2-0) is the lone undefeated team in its new district.
"We do what we do and don't really worry about what the opponent does," said Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell, whose team moved from District 7 when the TSSAA reclassified before the current school year. "We've played some tough nondistrict teams. Hopefully that will fare us well come February."
Red Bank (6-1, 2-1) shot the ball well in the early going, leading 11-3 in the first quarter and 15-10 at the end of it. But all the while the Lady Eagles were picking up full-court defensively and things turned drastically with Signal Mountain gaining a 20-8 scoring edge in the second quarter.
"They painted us right where they wanted us," said Red Bank coach Bailey McGinnis, who saw her players do some things against the press that had been emphasized in practice not to do. "We definitely have a lot to work on. We'll see them again. It's a long season."
Red Bank was limited to three field goals in the second quarter, and the same happened in the third. The last two were by post player Mya Kennebrew in the last 34 seconds of the period. Then her basket inside 10 seconds into the fourth quarter proved to be the Lady Lions' final field goal.
McGinnis referred to her team's downward slide as a "domino effect." Once things began heading in the wrong direction, the players couldn't get things turned around.
Much of the credit goes to the defense for Signal Mountain, which stretched the winning margin with a 23-point fourth quarter.
"We wanted to put a lot of pressure on them, and I thought we did that," Bell said. "They had a good start. We gave up a lot of shots and didn't play great, but at least we kept it up-tempo, which is what we wanted. We got a lot of run-outs. We got a lot of steals.
"We didn't finish well around the rim, but we were like, 'Let's just put a lot of pressure on them and keep it up-tempo.' Defense is a lot more important than offense."
Maia Rackel topped the Lady Eagles with 19 points. Kendall Davis and Mary Witherspoon scored 11 apiece, and Olivia Koontz added 10.
Kennebrew's 12 points paced Red Bank, and Bailey Lee contributed eight.
After the game, Signal Mountain held a ceremony retiring the jersey No. 3 worn by 2016 graduate Aryn Sanders. The current Alabama-Huntsville player is the Lady Eagles' career scoring leader with 2,736 points.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.