Northwest Whitfield's Paxton Pardee is guarded by Heritage's Jacob Bonine as Heritage's Tylon Gaines approaches Tuesday, Feburary 2, 2016, Heritage High School.
Northwest Whitfield's Chase Burton is guarded by Heritage's Noah Hill Tuesday, Feburary 2, 2016 at Heritage High School.RINGGOLD, Ga. - Ryan Richards had heard about the exploits of Trey Walker in pickup basketball games, but the Northwest Whitfield boys' coach had seen only glimpses of it this season for his Bruins.
He got the entire package and then some Tuesday night in perhaps the most important game of the season. The senior wing scored a career-high 27 points, led the team with 12 rebounds and added four steals for good measure as Northwest earned a season split with Heritage, 57-48.
The Bruins (18-5, 11-2) can clinch a tie with Cartersville for the Region 7-AAAA regular-season championship with a win Thursday against Southeast Whitfield. Northwest, though, can do no better than the No. 2 seed since Cartersville holds the tiebreaker edge. The top two teams earn byes to the region semifinals and automatically qualify for the state tournament.
"This was big since a win Thursday now puts us in the state tournament," Richards said. "I think there was some extra motivation tonight. Our kids think they didn't play very well against them at home, so they wanted to prove themselves tonight."
Walker was a one-man show in the first half, scoring 19 of Northwest's 23 points as the Bruins held a six-point halftime lead. He scored their final 12 points of the half, including a pair of hard drives and a three-point play off a steal.
"After that first basket it all felt good," the soft-spoken Walker said. "I was just having fun. We came to win. We are the number two seed now and we can start to focus on the tournament. I think we can win the region championship if we play like we did tonight."
Heritage (16-7, 10-3), though, would not go away. Noah Hill's three-point play started a brief 7-0 run that cut the Northwest lead to 36-35 two minutes into the final quarter.
Levi Mosteller, held in check to that point, hit a 3-pointer to stem the tide and Luke Shiflett drove for two points to push the lead back to six. A Hunter Erickson 3-pointer cut it back to three, but the Generals would go nearly three minutes without scoring.
Walker had no such problems, scoring on a pinpoint pass from Paxton Pardee and then rising above the crowded lane for a tip-in and an eight-point lead. Northwest hit 12 of 14 free throws in the final three minutes to seal the big win.
"I'm extremely proud of Trey," Richards said. "He and I had a talk at midseason that he was going to have to get things going or he would have to become a role player. He's done that - not necessarily in the scoring column - but he's rebounding and defending very well.
"We've heard all the stories about what he does at the rec center," Richards added with a laugh, "and now that we've seen it we hope we're going to hope for more of it."
Shiflett added 10 points for the winners, while Tylon Gaines led Heritage with 14, followed by Hill with 12 and Erickson with 10.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter@youngsports22.