And then there was one.
Bledsoe County gained sole possession of the District 7-AA girls' basketball lead Tuesday night at Signal Mountain by edging the Lady Eagles 49-47.
It was a back-and-forth affair throughout, but the Lady Warriors got the advantage by outscoring Signal Mountain 15-7 in the third quarter. That combined with 2-of-17 free-throw shooting became too much to overcome for the Lady Eagles.
"It is huge for us because now we are in sole first place, because now Signal Mountain has two losses and we only have one," Bledsoe coach Carlos Davis said. "If we can win the remainder of our ballgames we will win the district outright and get the first seed going into the tournament in February."
Signal Mountain (17-5, 5-2) held the visitors without a basket for the lastl three minutes of the second quarter and entered the locker room up three points. But the Lady Warriors (13-9, 6-1) beat the press and closed the third quarter with an 8-0 run to take a 38-33 lead and never trailed again.
Signal Mountain narrowed the gap to one on a Mary Witherspoon 3-pointer - her fourth of the game - in the final 30 seconds, but Bledsoe County converted its free throws. The Pikeville team went 6-of-7 down the stretch to seal the victory and first place.
"Bledsoe is a really solid team," Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell said. "We have to learn how to finish games out and we went 2-for-17 from the free-throw line, and you cannot do that to win in our district."
The Lady Warriors' Brittany Singleton scored a game-high 19 points and Keener also finished in double digits with 14.
The Lady Eagles had three in double figures, including Brooke Whitmire, who joined the 1,000-point club by scoring 15 points in a losing effort.
"It is a great accomplishment for Brooke," Bell said. "She is just a hard-nosed player and I am happy to see her get her 1,000th point tonight. She always plays hard and she is a good example of what hard work can do for you."
Bledsoe County will play another 7-AA game Friday at Grundy County.
"It is an awesome feeling," Davis said about leading the district. "At the beginning of the season we struggled. We started the season 5-9, and now we have won the nine of the last 10 ballgames. Every game we play we get better offensively and defensively."
Signal Mountain also hits the road Friday and will look to get back on track against Sequatchie County.
Contact Anthony Sigismond at sports@timesfreepress.com