For many prep basketball teams a third-place tournament finish after entering as the event’s defending champions would seem like a letdown. That’s far from the case for Signal Mountain and girls’ coach Kendra Bell.
The Lady Eagles (7-8), the 2020 Times Free Press Best of Preps champions (the last time the tournament was held), claimed a third-place finish Wednesday afternoon at East Hamilton High School by holding off a strong rally from the hosts, 49-46.
“We’re just so young. I was seriously as proud of them this week as I would’ve been if we had reached the finals because I found out we’ve got some kids who want to play basketball and compete,” Bell said. “Today we played really good defense. East Hamilton has some nice one-on-one ball players so I thought our on-ball defense was solid. To see the growth this week was encouraging. We started a different lineup every night but we have about nine kids who we know can play.”
Signal Mountain, after a slow start offensively by both teams, steadily built its lead up to 36-26 after three quarters, leaning on junior Cassidy Pawson and freshman Carlee Lowry, who finished with 15 and 12 points, respectively. The Lady Hurricanes, though, used aggressive defense and eight fourth-quarter points from McKenna Hayes to get within two points late.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Wednesday’s Best of Preps basketball tournament)