By the time he left his victorious team's locker room, the five-pound bag of Valentine's Day candy Howard boys' basketball coach James Talley held was almost empty.
Each Hustlin' Tiger had reached in to grab a handful of chocolate as a reward for the sweet 71-52 win over Signal Mountain in Thursday's elimination round of the District 6-AA tournament.
The tournament now moves to Red Bank for Saturday's semifinals, where Howard will take on rival Tyner at 4:30 p.m. in the first boys' game. The winner of Friday night's quarterfinal between Red Bank and East Ridge will face No. 1 seed Brainerd at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the other boys' semifinal, with those winners meeting Tuesday night at Red Bank.
"When we had our team meeting, one of the kids asked me if I was nervous about this game," Talley said. "I told him no, but that was a total lie. I knew this was the win-or-go-home round, so I was really nervous coming in.
"But the kids stepped up and played well together tonight. Once we got going, that first half was big."
The Hustlin' Tigers, who owned a pair of double-digit wins over Signal Mountain in the regular season, took the lead for good midway through the first quarter. The Eagles (11-21) cut their deficit to two points early in the second quarter, but Howard (21-6) answered with a 7-0 run and built a 12-point cushion by halftime.
Howard's DeWayne Lawry connected on buzzer-beating 3-pointers to end each of the first two quarters and scored 16 of his team-high 20 points in the first half.
"We knew we had to have this game, so we came out focused," Lawry said. "There was a lot of pressure on us in this one, but we were ready. A win like this can definitely give us a lot of confidence coming up."
Lawry and backcourt mate Meechie Bowens combined to make seven of Howard's eight 3-pointers, with all but two coming in the first half.
"Those guys really work on their outside shot a lot," Talley said. "Normally, Howard has been a team that likes to feed the post, but this team is different. We have some good outside shooters, and that's usually what gets us going.
"This team has had to learn how to close out games and how to win, and now they're showing they know how to do that."
After the Eagles got within eight early in the third quarter, Howard put the game away with an 11-0 run in a three-minute span.
Howard, which has won its past four games after losing three straight in January, split its regular-season meetings with Tyner - losing 51-50 on Jan. 4, then winning 41-36 two weeks ago.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.