As well as things went for Chattanooga Christian's girls early in their Division II East District 2-A high school basketball game at Notre Dame, they went even better for Notre Dame late.
As a result, the Lady Irish were able to overcome an early 10-point deficit Tuesday and defeat the Lady Chargers 50-41.
Notre Dame (8-4, 3-0) is now the only team in the district without a league loss. The Lady Irish also are scheduled to host the district and region tournaments.
"I think that means a lot," Notre Dame coach Jason Hill said of moving into first place alone. "It should give us confidence. That should let them start believing in what they can do. If we can build confidence each opponent at a time until we get to the district tournament, that's what it's all about."
CCS (6-2, 1-1) led by 10 points on three occasions in the first quarter - the first at 14-4, the last at 18-8. But by halftime the Lady Irish had whittled the deficit to one.
Notre Dame took its first lead at 27-26 when Averie Sheppard made a 3-point shot from the top of the key with 2:37 gone by in the second half. She scored all nine of her points in the third quarter.
The Lady Chargers regained the lead and were up 32-28 after Kate Dirkse's 16-foot jumper off a screen at the 4:02 mark of the third. However, their only points between then and Dixie Walker's basket off an inbound play with 2:01 remaining was Addie Henry's field goal in the lane at 6:51 of the fourth quarter.
Henry led all scorers with 24 points.
Hill said he thought three factors played into the Lady Chargers' scoring drought: Mackenzie Johnson's shot-blocking ability protecting the rim, a defensive improvement by the Lady Irish guards on the perimeter and CCS simply missing some open shots.
"They just played better than we did," CCS coach Laura Cottrell said. "We made some shots early. As far as the rest of the game, we got some good open looks, but we couldn't find it. They have a good team. We've got to play our best ball to beat them. Our effort was good. They just did a better job."
The Lady Irish reached the bonus early in the fourth quarter and ended up making 8 of 12 free throws after reaching the double bonus with 4:22 to go. They also mixed in a couple of layups on the way to their largest lead of 49-36.
Point guard Kate Ford topped Notre Dame with 17 points. The nine she scored in the fourth quarter included 7-of-9 free-throw shooting.
"We play aggressive," Cottrell said. "I'm not saying we didn't foul. We got in trouble with fouls because we were trying to become more and more aggressive going after the ball. And they were money from the line. When you're trying to overcome and you get down double digits, you start exerting so much to try to get back in it. That played a factor."
Said Hill: "They get you going fast with their intensity and pressure, running and gunning on you. They took us by surprise at the first of the game. We just had to regain our composure and crawl back into the game. Thank goodness there were three quarters left to give us a chance."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.