Walker Valley's Kat Alomar (25) dribbles around Cleveland's Jamiyah Person during their District 5-AAA basketball game Tuesday at Walker Valley High School.CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- There may not be many must-win situations in high school basketball in early January. Yet Walker Valley's girls were at least in something akin to one Tuesday night.
And things didn't look good for the host Lady Mustangs, down by 11 points midway through the third quarter. But from there they coupled some outside shooting by Kathleen Alomar with an overwhelming edge in trips to the free-throw line and came back and defeated Cleveland 43-38 in a key District 5-AAA game.
Had Walker Valley (10-5, 3-1) lost, it would've fallen two games behind the Lady Raiders in the district standings and a game behind Bradley Central, against which it had a lopsided loss on Dec. 5.
"We needed that win," Walker Valley coach Junior Tucker said. "We just try to look at the next game and try to win that game. But when you look at it from that perspective, it was important."
The loss was the first for Cleveland (7-7) in four district games. Bradley won Tuesday and at 4-1 leads the Lady Mustangs and Lady Raiders by half a game.
"We knew all year those were the teams expected to be in the top three," Cleveland coach Mindy Kiser said. "We were in control of our destiny and tonight didn't take care of business."
The Lady Raiders appeared on their way to taking care of business after Bre Ware scored on a baseline drive to make it 25-14. That led to a Walker Valley timeout with 3:58 to go in the third quarter.
Alomar scored the first points after the timeout on a drive, but it was her 3-point goals with 2:16 and 1:28 remaining that proved to be decisive. The first got the Lady Mustangs within two, and the second gave them a 37-35 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Also after the timeout, 11-of-15 free-throw shooting helped Walker Valley's rally. After Alomar's go-ahead 3-pointer, 6-of-8 free-throw shooting helped seal it.
"We changed our defense a little bit," Tucker said of a third-quarter adjustment. "We changed our press situation and got a couple of turnovers. Then we made a couple of 3s that got us back in it, and then we got to the free-throw line.
"Defensively they were really good. Credit them for that. We just started to play well there at the end when we needed to."
Alomar had 17 of her 20 points in the final 10:44. Jaclyn Griffith had two 3-point baskets among her 12 points.
"It's Walker Valley," Kiser said. "They can shoot. They can shoot in this gym. They're prideful."
The Lady Raiders got to halftime tied at 13 despite going without a field goal in the second quarter. They made three of four free throws in the period, but they were their only free throws of the night.
A 12-1 run starting the second half led to the 11-point lead. Kiser said some halftime adjustments made a difference, but some bad shot-selection decisions in the second half ultimately contributed to the downfall.
"We took some wrong shots at some wrong times," Kiser said. "We forced some things, especially when we were up nine or 11."
Cleveland had three 3-pointers, all by Jenna Scoggins, who was its scoring leader with 15 points.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.