Thirty-two points may not be enough to win many high school basketball games, but they were for Signal Mountain's girls Friday night.
The Lady Eagles found themselves in a defensive struggle with host Chattanooga Christian, and their offense struggled a little less on the way to a 32-19 victory.
Signal Mountain (8-1) keeps pace with Grundy County as the only District 7-AA unbeatens at 2-0. CCS goes to 6-2 and 1-1 in the district.
"Our district is the most wide open it's ever been, in my opinion," Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell said. "Every game is huge. It's going to be a battle."
Perhaps the importance of the game led to some nervous play in the beginning. The game's first points didn't occur until CCS beat the Lady Eagles' press and got a layup from Katie Davick with 2:05 to go in the first quarter. The period ended 2-2.
"They played great half-court defense," Bell said of the Lady Chargers. "You just have to give credit where credit is due. Our effort was there on the offensive end. We counted nine missed layups in the first quarter.
"We tell them, 'If you can play defense and rebound, you'll stay in games.' We played hard. We just didn't play well."
CCS coach Laura Cottrell also recognized that the opposing defense had much to do with her team's offensive struggles.
"They do a good job in their zone, and their man-to-man switching defense," Cottrell said. "They defend you, even off a miss. We'd get a rebound and they'd pressure us. They'd have two or three kids running at us."
The defenses were a little less dominant in the second quarter as the Lady Eagles moved to a 10-6 halftime lead. Then the 14 points they scored in the third quarter proved to be huge and enabled them to take a 24-13 lead into the fourth.
Signal Mountain reached the bonus with 2:07 to play and with a nine-point lead missed its first two front ends of bonus situations. But the Lady Eagles managed to make six of eight free throws in the last 1:05 to put it away.
"Our kids played great defense," Cottrell said. "I was very proud of the way we played man-to-man in the halfcourt. The kids did exactly what we asked them to do. They gave us a chance. If we make a couple of shots, maybe it's a different game."
Each team managed one double-figure scorer. Kendall Davis made three 3-point shots and finished with 12 points for Signal Mountain. Brooke Whitmire, who got in first-half foul trouble, added eight.
Lady Chargers reserve Kate Dirkse scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half before fouling out late.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.