Signal Mountain’s Stephen Heinichen shoots over Bledsoe County’s Nathaniel Collins (21) Friday at Signal Mountain High School.The up-and-down Signal Mountain boys’ basketball team was definitely up Friday night.
The Eagles might be the most volatile high school team in the Chattanooga area in terms of performances this season. But after taking care of business at home in a 64-47 victory over Bledsoe County, Signal Mountain is poised to be the top-seeded team in the District 7-AA tournament if it wins its three remaining games.
Signal Mountain is now 7-10 overall, and that includes losses in consecutive games in early January to Red Bank and Hixson by a combined 36 points. The next time out, the Eagles beat Tyner, which is ahead of both the Lions and Wildcats in the District 6-AA standings.
“There’s a simple answer: effort,” Signal Mountain coach Steve Redman said. “We lost badly to Red Bank and Hixson because of effort. We had a come-to-Jesus meeting the Monday morning after the Hixson loss. They’ve really come together and played hard. Winning feels good when you do it the right way.”
The Eagles have two district losses among the seven they’ve played, but they’ve now swept Bledsoe County (17-5, 6-2). They won 55-49 at Pikeville on Dec. 9.
“It’s a little bit matchup, but the main thing is Coach Redman getting their guys to play hard,” Bledsoe County coach Mark Cagle said. “As far as hustle and effort, his team is in the top two or three we’ve played. They outplayed us tonight.”
It also helped Signal Mountain that it was often scoring in threes compared to Bledsoe’s twos. Six of the first seven times the Eagles scored it was either a 3-point goal or a three-point play. Stephen Heinichen tacked on a leaner in the lane with 5:44 to go until halftime and put them up 22-8.
“We actually haven’t shot the ball that well from 3,” Redman said. “That definitely gave us a cushion. A couple start falling and other things come easier.”
Bledsoe scored the next nine points, but the Eagles countered with a 6-2 run to close the half for a 28-19 lead. Their largest lead was 49-30 early in the fourth quarter. Again the Warriors had a 9-0 run to get back within 10 with 5:26 to play, but got no closer.
“You can’t dig a hole, especially like we did, because it’s hard to get back out,” Cagle said. “You claw back but you’re still down, then they go on a little run and you’re right back where you were.”
Signal Mountain’s last nine points came from the free-throw line, where they made 21 of 25 in the gaqme. Bledsoe made 6 of 9.
“They shot the ball real well tonight,” Cagle said. “When you make 20 free throws, that’s a lot of points to overcome on the floor. Hopefully they learned something from the loss and will realize that hustle can be a deciding factor in the game. At times we had it, but we didn’t play with it for four quarters.”
Griffin Palmer paced the Eagles with 29 points. Jack Teter added 17 and Hunter VanDyken scored 11.
Ben Dean’s 19 points topped the Warriors. Taylor Warden didn’t score until 2:20 before halftime but finished with 14 points.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.