Thursday night’s win did much more for the South Pittsburg boys’ basketball team than simply avenge an earlier loss to Signal Mountain.

More importantly, the Pirates’ 57-40 road victory put them alone in second place in District 6-A, and coach David Phillips hopes it also will give his team some much-needed momentum heading into the final stretch of the regular season.

“It’s big, not just because of that game but because we haven’t been playing really well,” Phillips said. “We needed this to help us turn the corner, and to put us back ahead of them in the standings. We’re still not playing like we’re capable of playing, but I’m hoping we can carry this over and continue to get better.”

Signal Mountain’s win two weeks ago at South Pittsburg moved the first-year program into a tie for the No. 2 seeding in 6-A, but the Eagles struggled to get their offense going in Thursday’s rematch. The Pirates (11-8, 7-2) scored the first seven points, and led by as much as 12 before Signal Mountain cut its halftime deficit to 23-18.

“We just didn’t get off to a real good start,” Eagles coach Wes Moore said. “We couldn’t get a bucket to get us into the flow of the game, and we didn’t rebound nearly as well as we did up there.”

South Pittsburg opened the second half with six straight points from Terrell Robinson, who totaled a game-high 26, then extended its run to 12-2. The Eagles missed an opportunity to trim the margin to single digits when they couldn’t finish a three-point play with 1:31 left in the third period, and eight points from Robinson helped the Pirates pull away in the fourth.

“He’s our leading scorer right now, and if he’s off we struggle,” Phillips said. “I told him before the game that we needed a big night out of him, and he came through.”

Jiajuan Fennell added 11 points for South Pittsburg, and Signal Mountain (8-10, 5-3) was led by 10 from Austin Renfrow, one of two sophomore starters on a roster that also includes five juniors and six freshmen.

After beginning the season with just one player who had previous varsity experience and three who had never played basketball before, the Eagles have already exceeded expectations for their first year and still can improve on their third-place position.

“For a first-year program with our lack of experience to be where we are, to have a chance at second place or even third, it just speaks volumes about how hard these guys have worked,” Moore said. “We have a great deal of young talent. Every game is a learning experience.”