The Walker Valley girls and boys basketball teams wrapped up the Silverdale Thanksgiving Classic basketball tournament with a pair of wins against Silverdale and Grundy County Wednesday.
The Mustangs opened with a 60-51 win over the Seahawks while the Lady Mustangs closed out the day pulling away from the Lady Yellow Jackets n the seond half for a 69-44 victory.
Walker Valley boys 60, Silverdale 51: Walker Valley's Cash Coates scored 14 first-half points and added eight more in the final two quarters to lead the Mustangs to a 60-51 win over the Silverdale Seahawks.
The victory kept the Mustangs perfect on the season at 5-0 after finishing 3-0 at the Thanksgiving tournament. Silverdale stands at 1-4 after finishing tournament play with a 1-2 mark.
“We're very young, very inexperienced. But, our guys are fighting. I love how we started the game really high in intensity and we finished the game with high intensity,” said Seahawks had coach Slater Belew. “We've just got to put it all together.I told the guys that if they buy into what we're saying, come Christmas time we'll be a different team.”
The win did not come easy to the Herd who trailed 21-18 at the end of the first quarter. The Seahawks battled back from a 14-9 deficit to take a 15-14 lead late in the period.
Coates lofted in a 3-pointer and followed with a two ball early in the second to put the Mustangs on top 23-21. Sam Taylor and Luke Smith added a basket apiece minutes later to make it 27-22 with just over three minutes left in the first half. Walker Valley closed out the first two quarters with back-to-back 3s from Caleb Sausville and a 2 from Taylor to take a 35-27 lead into the halftime locker room.
“It's a win. I'll take a win on the road at their home place. They've got a good squad. Their coach head them prepared and they played really well,” said Mustangs head coach Will Campbell. “We pulled it out at the end. We made some free throws down the stretch which was big. It was good to get a win going into Thanksgiving.”
Hobert Brabson opened the second half for the Mustangs with a 3 and Coates, Rodney Broadnax and Taylor all contributed as Walker Valley played well enough to hold a 48-39 advantage after three quarters.
The Seahawks heated up early in the fourth quarter cutting a 53-39 Mustangs lead to 53-50 with 4:06 left to play. Taylor made it 55-50 with just over two minutes left on the clock and the Mustangs finished the day from the free-throw line as Taylor, Coates, Barber and Brabson combined to seal the win making 4 of 6 shots from the stripe. The Walker Valley defense held Silversale to a single free throw in the final minute.
Houston Holland paced the Seahawks with 18 points. Elyjah Richardson ended his day with 11.
“It was a tough game. It's early still and I think we're still kind of inconsistent. Basketball is a game of runs and we'll go on a pretty good run and look good then the next thing you know, we can't guard anybody, we can't score,” said Campbell. “We're still figuring some stuff out. Execution-wise, we've got to get a lot better.
Walker Valley girls 69, Grundy Co. 44: Madison Bishof piled in 20 points and Emilee Worden followed up with 13 as the Lady Mustangs headed into Thanksgiving with a 69-44 win over Grundy County.
“It's good to head into Thanksgiving on a high note,” said Lady Mustangs hed caoch Drew Lyness. “We've had some girls sick and had some girls not feeling well. We're not at full strength, but we played with some enthusiasm all night long and we responded well at halftime.”
Grundy forced the Walker Valley girls to battle in the first quarter and played the Lady Mustangs point-for-point to trail 16-15 at the buzzer and kept the heat on in the second frame taking a 28-28 tie into the break.
The Lady Mustangs responded to the halftime adjustments in a big way in the third quarter scoring the first 11 points — highlighted by an Ashlyn Pierce 3 — to go up 39-28. Kaylee Littrell, Worden, Chloe Poe and Bishof all stretched the nylons in the run. Bishof put a cap on the scoring with a 2-pointer with just inder a minute left into the quarter to give the Lady Mustangs a 41-36 advantage at the buzzer.
Bishof opened the final eight minutes with a 3 and Walker Valley out scored the Lady Jackets 28-8 in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Lisa Earls, Worden, Sariyah Cox and Lyla Sims all contributed to the final total.
“We were frustrated at halftime. We felt we were much better than them and we proved that in the second half,” said Lyness. 'Our energy was good, our enthusiasm was good. We had some girls step up and play some big minutes and score some points which was fun.”
The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs will hit the court again Monday at Boyd-Buchanan then jump into the district schedule Friday on the road against McMinn County. Tip is set for 6 and 7:30 p.m.
Girl's Summary
WALKER VALLEY 16 12 13 28 — 69
GRUNDY CO. 15 13 8 8 — 44
WALKER VALLEY (69) — Pierce 8, Lonas, Poe 4, Littrell 8, Madison Bishof 20, Sims 4, Earls 9, Emilee Worden 13, Cox 3.
GRUNDY CO. (44) — Crabtree 2, T. McDaniel 3, Woodlee 3, Carlea Smartt 15, W. McDaniel 7, Dandzon, Luck 2, Rymer 3, Panter 9, Garza, K. Smartt, Rogers.
3-point goals: Walker Valley 6 (Bishof 2, Pierce 2, Worden 2); Grundy County 6 C. Smartt 3, Panter 2, Woodlee).
Records: Walker Valley 2-3.
Boy's Summary
WALKER VALLEY 18 17 13 12 — 60
SILVERDALE 21 6 12 12 — 51
WALKER VALLEY (60) — Broadnax 4, Barber 2, Brabson 7, Graham 4, Taylor 8, Sausville 8, Smith 4, Cash Coates 22, Campbell.
SILVERDALE (51) — Elyjah Richardson 11, Okpara 4, J. Richardson 2, Walker, Haile 6, Gibson 3, Houston Hollland 18, Bowman, McGraw 6, Hardaway 6.
3-point goals: Walker Valley 7 (Brabson 2, Graham, Sausville 2, Coates 2); Silverdale 7 (E. Richardson 3, Haile, Gibson, Holland 3).
Records: Walker Valley 5-0; Silverdale 1-4.