Signal Mountain may have needed to play a near flawless game Friday to advance in the Region 4-AA girls' high school basketball tournament. They didn't come close.
Between the turnovers Macon County's Tigerettes forced and the others the Lady Eagles handed them, the District 7 champions were no match for District 8's fourth-place finisher, and Macon County advanced to a semifinal with a 60-38 victory.
The Tigerettes finished second in their district during the regular season, but a four-point loss to Smith County in a tournament semifinal dropped them to the consolation game, where they met an upset No. 2-state-ranked Upperman, the regular-season champion, and lost again.
"After we lost twice in our district tournament, coming over here we kind of tested their will," Macon County coach Larry White said of his players. "We wanted to make sure they wanted to be here."
They seemed to more than the Lady Eagles. Signal Mountain forward Maia Rackel put forth a 26-point performance, but no other teammate had more than five.
"We didn't show up tonight," Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell said. "That was a huge disappointment."
Signal Mountain twice led by two points in the early stages, though its last lead was 5-4. Once the Tigerettes broke a tie at 7, they led the rest of the way.
The Lady Eagles threatened to make the game competitive in the third quarter, pulling within 33-26 on Rackel's three-point play at the 5:23 mark. But by the time Macon County (21-9) scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to complete a 13-4 run, it was squarely back in control.
"I thought our run-and-jump press was too much for them," White said. "Not that we forced a million turnovers or anything, but it helped us get the game at a fast pace and we were able to get their posts away from the basket."
The Tigerettes had similar scoring in that one player, freshman Keeley Carter, had 23 points and the rest of her teammates were below double digits. But five of them had six or more.
"We knew their guards were good. Number 24 was the difference in the game to me," Bell said of Carter. "When she didn't score, she was driving it in and kicking it. Sometimes no matter what you try, it just doesn't work."
The Lady Eagles end their season 24-6. Bell noted that 38 points per game graduated off that district championship-winning team.
"Repeating gets hard every year," Bell said. "We have a great group of kids. They love the game. They had respect for us as coaches. Obviously we would've liked to have shown up tonight and played. I don't know why we didn't."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.