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.