Mustangs pull out Class AAA state tournament berth

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Josh Jones remembers running around at Walker Valley basketball games as a 4-year-old admiring the last Mustangs basketball team to reach the state tournament.

"I dreamed of being on a team that did that," Jones said. "Everybody on that team could play."

Jones made the game-deciding play Monday that sent Walker Valley back to Murfreesboro for the state tournament starting a week from Wednesday. Jones scooped in a layup and then hit a free throw to provide the Mustangs with a 62-60 win over Lawrence County in a Class AAA sectional at "The Stable."

"I never sat in the same place," Jones said. "I was the fourth-grader running all over the place."

Monday night, he was the last player to climb an orange ladder and cut down a net. Every player and coach sliced off a piece of nylon before heading home, more than 30 minutes after the final horn.

"Before Christmas we were 8-6 and the guys had a team meeting," coach Bob Williams said. "Then we started playing good ball."

They played a balanced style on Monday.

Bryce Nunnelly, who delivered an assist on the winning basket, led Walker Valley with 13 points. Jones scored 12 and had five assists. Kolten Gibson, Cooper Melton and Kenny Bunton scored 10 points apiece, Bunton with nine rebounds and three blocked shots and Melton with seven rebounds.

Garrett Martin led the Wildcats (21-12) with 17 points, 6-foot-7 center Bryce Clifft scored 15, including Lawrence County's last nine, and Lance Pope added 14.

"This is going to give me nightmares," Lawrence County coach Shaen Clark said. "That's a tough one to swallow. We wanted to go one step further, but we came up 15.8 seconds short.

"You don't want it to come down to one play."

Lawrence County roared out to a 14-5 lead and put two fouls on Bunton in the process. The Wildcats led 18-10 after the first period. Walker Valley got on its horses and outscored Lawrence County 20-12 in the second period. A three-point play by Jones in the final minute sent the teams to the locker rooms tied at 30.

"We did get down, but we're known as a second-half team," Bunton said. "We went too quick in the first quarter and started to slow things down. We saw that we could get to the rim and use our quickness."

The lead belonged to Walker Valley for a stretch of 8 minutes, 44 seconds that began early in the third quarter and until Lance Pope tied the game with a 3-pointer with 6:44 to go. Walker Valley led 54-49 with 4:25 to go.

Then the Wildcats started riding big man Clifft, and his bucket with 18 seconds left gave Lawrence County a 60-59 lead.

"I almost called time out," Williams said. "But I saw something developing which would have been better than anything I could have drawn up."

The deciding play started with Nunnelly driving down the left side of the lane and drawing the defense. He spun and found Jones streaking to the basket. One pass, one dribble and one foul later, the Mustangs led. Jones hit the free throw with 7.5 seconds left for a two-point lead.

"It happened so fast I couldn't keep up," Bunton said. "Time was going so slow, but everything was happening so fast."

Lawrence County had a chance, but a 3-pointer clanged off the rim and time expired. The Wildcats headed to their locker room, and then game administrators let the Walker Valley student section storm the court in celebration.

Jones jumped around like a little fourth-grader.

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.

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